The World Economic and Social Survey provides objective analysis of pressing long-term social and economic development issues, and discusses the positive and negative impact of corresponding policies. The analyses are supported by analytical research and data included in the annex. According to the 2006 edition of the Survey, in the industrialized world, the income level over the last five decades has grown steadily while it has failed to do so in many developing countries, thereby causing a rise in already high world inequality. Not many developing countries have been growing at sustained rates in recent decades, but these include China and India, the world's two most populous countries accounting for a third of world population. If these two are excluded from the analysis, however, international income inequality has continued to rise from already high levels. Because more than 70 per cent of global inequality is explained by the income divergence between countries, its causes and implications are the focus of this survey.