Dividing the pie

Visual form

Three-country Sankey-style flow sequence.

Layout / body structure

The chart is presented as three country views – Germany, Japan, and the United States – each using the same left-to-right flow layout. In every panel the reader starts with four source categories on the left, follows the ribbons through the center, and ends at the three household-income groups on the right before moving to the next country panel.

What is being compared

Each country panel compares how labor income, capital income, social-insurance contributions, and taxes from the corporate sector flow to three household-income groups: the top 10 percent, the next 40 percent, and the bottom 50 percent. The sequence then compares how that distribution differs across Germany, Japan, and the United States.

Measurement system

All figures are shown as percentages of the net domestic income of the corporate sector. The source values are printed on the left of each panel, the destination shares are printed on the right, and the thickness of each ribbon encodes how much of each stream flows to each household segment.

Visible structure inside the graphic

Each panel has four labeled source blocks on the left – wages and salaries, capital income, contribution to social insurance, and taxes – feeding colored ribbons toward three destination blocks on the right. The pale blue wage stream is visibly the widest in every country, while the darker capital and tax flows split differently across the top 10, next 40, and bottom 50 groups, making each national pattern legible at a glance.

Main takeaway from the visual

The United States sends a noticeably larger share of net corporate-sector income to the top 10 percent than Germany or Japan, while Germany routes the largest share to the next 40 percent. The repeated three-panel layout makes that contrast immediate because the right-side totals can be compared country by country in the same positions.

Key standout values or extremes

In the United States, the top 10 percent receives 43 percent of net income, compared with 28 percent in Germany and 33 percent in Japan. Germany gives the next 40 percent the largest share at 50 percent, while Japan allocates 27 percent to the bottom 50 percent versus 23 percent in the United States and 22 percent in Germany.

Controls / sequence, when applicable

The source article uses a click-through country sequence rather than a free-form dashboard, and the published page itself does not expose live filters or hover interactions.

Companion media, when applicable

There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart is the full visual on this page.