Comparable data on the distribution of household income provide both a point of reference for judging the performance of any country and an opportunity to assess the role of common drivers as well as drivers that are country-specific. They also allow governments to draw on the experience of different countries in order to learn "what works best" in narrowing income disparities, inequality and poverty. But achieving comparability in this field is also difficult, as national practices differ widely in terms of concepts (inequality), measures (GINI), and statistical sources. This database includes GINI and income inequality data; it replaces the datasets "Income distribution: inequality" ( http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/data-00199-en ) and "Income distribution: poverty" ( http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/data-00200-en ).