Ireland has the fifth-highest number of billionaires per capita, according to a report by Oxfam.
The charity has launched the study ahead of this year's World Economic Forum, which kicks in Davos off today.
According to the report, the 2,153 billionaires in the world own more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60% of Earth's population.
Ireland has 17 billionaires, a number Oxfam describes as "disproportionately high" - behind only Hong Kong, Cyprus, Switzerland and Singapore in terms of the number of billionaires relative to the population.
Elsewhere, the report says that half the world’s population continue to live on less than €5 a day - although there's been a small revision upwards of the wealth of the world's poorest people.
Oxfam's 2020 report highlights particular inequality issues in the carer sector.
According to the charity, 38 million hours of unpaid care are being carried out every week by women in Ireland.
Jim Clarken, Oxfam Ireland chief executive, observed: "Dramatic inequality is continuing to grow, and it's continuing to have a huge impact on poverty and fighting poverty.
"In this year's report we specifically focused on care and care work, and the fact that the majority of this is unpaid - or else it's paid at poverty wages."
He added: “Sexist economies are fuelling the inequality crisis - enabling a wealthy elite to accumulate vast fortunes at the expense of ordinary people and particularly women and girls.
"Our upside-down economic system deepens inequality by chronically undervaluing care work - usually done by women and girls."
