Inequality of divided and shared socio-economic resources in 15-minute cities of China

The inequality of socio-economic resources has threatened individual well-being and urban sustainability. However, the inequality in different resource allocation scenarios is still unclear, and the accessibility distance to resources has not been considered. We developed a large-scale, long-term, and multi-perspective quantitative evaluation framework of inequality in the dividing-resource and sharing-resource scenarios over the past 31 years (1992–2022) within 15-minute cities. This framework is informed by patterns of urban development and the spatial distribution of resources and population. The results from 334 Chinese cities demonstrate the differences in inequality between developed and developing cities. When individuals share resources within 15-minute accessibility distance, inequality is lower in developed cities relative to developing cities due to more spatially balanced resources, with a decreasing trend over the past 31 years. However, due to the uneven spatial distribution of the population in developed cities, inequality among individuals has increased when resources are divided within 15-minute accessibility distance. We suggest that the government avoid policy lagging and reduce inequality by rationalizing the spatial configuration of socio-economic resources. Developed cities could adopt policies to direct the overpopulation of city centers outward, and developing cities should care about resources for suburban citizens.