As the number of people living in urban areas increases steadily, urban inequality becomes a central focus in the debate on the causes and consequences of social inequality. However, a dearth of data makes it difficult to grasp inequality empirically in a wider multidimensional and comparative perspective. In this contribution, we examine trends in urban inequality in a global sample of cities, focusing especially on cities outside Europe and North America. Using data obtained from the Database on Urban Inequality and Amenities, we are able to track trends in urban inequality in different domains, including socio-occupational structures, education, private goods, and public amenities. We draw upon remote sensing derived data from the Atlas of Urban Expansion to more accurately define city boundaries. Furthermore, we draw upon survey data stored in IPUMS (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series) to include extensive, harmonized, and disaggregated data. From the 86 cities included in the database, we selected subsamples of cities depending on the availability of data for each domain and period. We identify four informational domains that can reveal the multifaceted nature of urban inequality. Educational and socio-occupational inequality can be associated with person-based characteristics such as instruction level and category of occupation. They represent the potential of the individual to acquire autonomy and generate income. The other two domains of inequality represent the access to public amenities and private consumables, including basic infrastructure, dwelling characteristics and private assets such as a refrigerator and television. We can also organize these four domains orthogonally, differentiating them into two categories of individual and collective perspective. In this case, private consumables and socio-occupational classes relate to the individual realm and public amenities and educational inequality to the collective sphere. With descriptive statistics and data visualization, we show that in all four of these domains inequality is decreasing, although there are important exceptions and glaring regional variation in the pace and intensity of this process. Results show that Gini index for education decreased across all regions. The access to public amenities such as water or electricity also improved in all regions and became nearly universal in Latin American cities. Access to private goods also improved in general but African cities still present lower access. The participation of middle occupation groups varied within the subsample indicating dissimilarities in the inherent social polarization process with cities seeing their middle classes shrink and others showing a different pattern over the period.
