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S there more wealth inequality now than during the french revolution
Executive summary
Available sources show that France on the eve of 1789 had extremely concentrated wealth—some accounts put the top 10% owning about 90% of national wealth and the top 1% about 60%—whereas modern measures show very high inequality in many countries today but generally lower top-share concentrations than those pre‑Revolution numbers for France [1] [2]. Comparing “more unequal” across centuries depends on which country, which measure (wealth vs income; top shares vs Gini), and on data quality: historical estimates for the 18th century are sparse and often rely on reconstructed land and estate records, while modern estimates use national accounts, surveys and tax data [1] [3] [2].
1. What the old estimates say: revolutionary France was extremely top‑heavy
Historical reconstructions cited in contemporary commentary claim that just before 1789 the top 10% in France held roughly 90% of national wealth and the top 1% as much as 60%—a concentration that modern readers naturally compare to contemporary inequality [1]. Those figures refer to ownership of land, titles and other patrimonial assets that defined wealth in the ancien régime; scholars warn that 18th‑century wealth measures reflect a very different economy [1] [4].
2. How modern inequality is measured — and why it complicates comparisons
Modern inequality research uses multiple metrics: Gini coefficients for income distribution, top‑share statistics for wealth, and combined sources (surveys, national accounts, tax records). The World Inequality Database (WID) and Our World in Data stress that combining data sources improves reliability and helps capture top fortunes that surveys miss — but differences in methods mean direct like‑for‑like comparisons with 1789 are fraught [3] [2]. In short: which number you choose decides whether “now” looks worse or better.
3. What contemporary evidence shows about today’s wealth concentration
Recent analyses find large and growing wealth concentration in many countries: for example, U.S. top wealth shares and gaps between the top and bottom have widened over recent decades; Pew and CBPP document rising concentration at the top and stagnation for many households [5] [6]. VisualCapitalist and UBS note that millionaires account for a very large share of personal wealth globally and that global wealth equality has slightly declined since 2000 [7]. But these modern top shares — while large — are generally not presented in the sources as reaching the 60–90% shares attributed to pre‑Revolutionary France [7] [5].
4. Scholarly caveats and the problem of missing data
Historians and economic historians emphasize limits: country‑level estate records and tax documents from the 18th century are incomplete, and measures often focus on landownership rather than liquid financial wealth, so high top‑share estimates for 1789 can reflect the asset composition of that era [4] [1]. Likewise, modern surveys underestimate the wealth of the very richest unless supplemented with fiscal and national‑accounts data, which WID.world recommends [3]. Available sources do not offer a single, definitive cross‑era metric that eliminates these methodological gaps [3] [4].
5. Different narratives — revolution vs. reform versus modern risk
Commentators draw different lessons: some argue modern societies risk “turning into revolutionary France” because of concentrated economic and political power [8], while others point out that rising top shares today coexist with broader middle‑class prosperity and different institutional buffers [2] [5]. The CEPR analysis adds nuance by showing that post‑Revolution institutional change (land redistribution, market development) altered long‑run inequality and growth patterns—suggesting that context and institutions matter as much as raw inequality numbers [9].
6. Bottom line for your question
If you mean “was wealth more concentrated in France right before 1789 than it is in most countries today?” the answer supported by the cited sources is yes: the pre‑Revolutionary estimates indicate extraordinarily high top shares (top 1% ~60%, top 10% ~90%) that modern reported national top shares generally do not match [1] [7]. If you instead ask “is global or specific‑country inequality worse today than in 1789?” the available sources show the question is complex: modern inequality is high and rising in many places (notably the U.S.), measured differently, and its political risks depend on institutions and distributional dynamics, so a simple binary comparison is misleading [5] [6] [2].
Limitations: the conclusions above rest on the limited set of sources provided; historical estimates are reconstructed and contested, and modern statistics vary by method and country [4] [3].