Educational development in a country should reliably predict the level of wealth and its distribution. Undeveloped societies tend to have highly inegalitarian distribution functions. The development process accelerates this tendency by rewarding wealthy segments of the population that are in a position to invest in the growing economy. Finally, in advanced stages of development, bureaucratic and political structures may reach a point where egalitarian changes in the distributive process can be effected. Education leads to development and increased wealth in the society, but since education enriches individuals, it increases inequality. Three basic areas are explored to test a model relating economic development, education, and inequality: (1) level of economic development; (2) level of educational development; and (3) diversity of economic structures. Using a variety of educational and income statistics, and a measure of development, a Gini index was generated for each of 144 nations. In general, the data support the expected relationship. However, when the sample is divided into three groups based on GNP per capita, this relationship is only seen in advanced developed and undeveloped nations. In developing nations, increasing educational levels are related to increasing wealth, but not to increasing inequality. (MCK)