During the last century and a half, average world income grew tenfold, the composition of output and relative factor returns shifted, and globalization occurred. Consumption per person has grown over time, but more slowly than GDP per capita, as the share of private consumption declined, although this was partly offset by the rising share of public consumption. Income inequality within countries fell from the early to the late twentieth century and has risen in recent decades. Living standards improved across the world, but the gap between the West and the Rest increased, and between-country inequality widened over time until the 1990s, when the trend reversed. Among world inhabitants, income distribution has followed a similar trend, with inequality increasing up to 1990 and declining in the twenty-first century. Impressive long-run gains in human development have taken place in the world without being interrupted by the economic slowdown and globalization backlash during 1914–50.