If you want to see how much wealth inequality a city has, just look at the skyline—the buildings are basically a giant bar graph of the gap.
March 27, 2026
Original Paper
The Verticality Gap: A Correlation Study of Income Inequality and Urban Skyscraper Development
SSRN · 6214958
The Takeaway
By comparing Gini coefficients with skyscraper construction, this study found that highly unequal societies 'invest upward' into prestige ultratall towers. In contrast, egalitarian societies tend to build 'wide,' prioritizing human-scale density and social infrastructure over the 'verticality' of elite assets.
From the abstract
This paper explores the relationship between national income inequality and urban architectural form. This study uses Gini coefficients from the World Bank and CTBUH skyscraper construction metrics to test the hypothesis that higher levels of wealth concentration lead to "verticality," the preference for ultratall towers over mid-rise density. The study compares "High Inequality" countries (USA, Brazil, China) to "High Equality" countries (e.g., Denmark, Norway, Japan). These findings suggest th