What percent of all income did the richest 1 percent earn in 2014?

• A. 25%
• B. 40%
• C. 50%
• D. 60%

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is income concentration: how the total income is divided among people, and how much the very top earners control. Saying that the richest 1 percent earned about half of all income in 2014 highlights just how skewed the distribution can be—half of all income going to a single percentile shows a level of inequality where a tiny sliver of people pull in a massive share, while everyone else shares the remainder.

That’s why this option fits best: it conveys a stark, widely discussed point about inequality in that period. Other figures would understate or overstate the level of concentration for most discussions of this topic, so fifty percent is the figure that aligns with the intended takeaway about how unequal income was distributed.