The median income is the income amount that divides a population into two groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the mean (or average) income. Both of these are ways of understanding income distribution.
Median income can be calculated by household income, by personal income, or for specific demographic groups.
The measurement of income from individuals and households, which is necessary to produce statistics such as the median, can pose challenges and yield results inconsistent with aggregate national accounts data. For example, an academic study on the Census income data claims that when correcting for underreporting, U.S. median gross household income was 15% higher in 2010 (table 3). [1]
When taxes and mandatory contributions are subtracted from income, the result is called net or disposable income.
The median equivalised disposable income is the median of the disposable income which is equivalised by dividing income by the square root of household size; the square root is used to acknowledge that people sharing accommodation benefit from pooling at least some of their living costs. [3] [4] The median equivalised disposable income for individual countries corrected for purchasing power parity (PPP) for 2021 in United States dollars is shown in below table. [2]
Country | Median equivalised disposable income (US$, PPP) | |
---|---|---|
1 | Luxembourg | 49,748 |
2 | United States | 48,625 |
3 | Norway | 41,621 |
4 | Switzerland | 39,698 |
5 | Canada | 39,388 |
6 | Austria | 37,715 |
7 | Belgium | 37,110 |
8 | Iceland | 36,853 |
9 | Australia | 36,835 |
10 | Netherlands | 35,891 |
11 | Germany | 35,537 |
12 | Denmark | 34,061 |
13 | Sweden | 33,472 |
14 | New Zealand | 32,158 |
15 | South Korea | 31,882 |
16 | Ireland | 31,392 |
17 | Finland | 30,727 |
18 | France | 30,622 |
19 | Slovenia | 28,698 |
20 | Italy | 27,949 |
21 | United Kingdom | 26,884 |
22 | Spain | 26,630 |
23 | Estonia | 26,075 |
24 | Poland | 24,264 |
25 | Czech Republic | 23,802 |
26 | Israel | 21,366 |
27 | Japan | 21,282 |
28 | Lithuania | 20,856 |
29 | Latvia | 19,908 |
32 | Croatia | 19,680 |
31 | Portugal | 19,147 |
32 | Greece | 16,774 |
33 | Slovak Republic | 16,410 |
34 | Hungary | 15,361 |
35 | Romania | 15,898 |
36 | Bulgaria | 14,990 |
37 | Turkey | 10,341 |
38 | Chile | 10,101 |
39 | Costa Rica | 8,915 |
40 | Mexico | 6,090 |
41 | South Africa | 6,068 |
The economy of Denmark is a modern high-income and highly developed mixed economy. The economy of Denmark is dominated by the service sector with 80% of all jobs, whereas about 11% of all employees work in manufacturing and 2% in agriculture. The nominal Gross National Income per capita was the ninth-highest in the world at $68,827 in 2023.
Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. For example, a person's income in an economic sense may be different from their income as defined by law.
The economy of Slovakia is based upon Slovakia becoming an EU member state in 2004, and adopting the euro at the beginning of 2009. Its capital, Bratislava, is the largest financial centre in Slovakia. As of Q1 2018, the unemployment rate was 5.72%.
Disposable income is total personal income minus current taxes on income. In national accounts definitions, personal income minus personal current taxes equals disposable personal income. Subtracting personal outlays yields personal savings, hence the income left after paying away all the taxes is referred to as disposable income.
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for the average adult. The cost of housing, such as the rent for an apartment, usually makes up the largest proportion of this estimate, so economists track the real estate market and other housing cost indicators as a major influence on the poverty line. Individual factors are often used to account for various circumstances, such as whether one is a parent, elderly, a child, married, etc. The poverty threshold may be adjusted annually. In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is significantly higher in developed countries than in developing countries.
In economics, income distribution covers how a country's total GDP is distributed amongst its population. Economic theory and economic policy have long seen income and its distribution as a central concern. Unequal distribution of income causes economic inequality which is a concern in almost all countries around the world.
Poverty in the entirety of Australia refers to the incidence of relative poverty in Australia and its measurement. Relative income poverty is measured as the percentage of the population that earns less than the median wage of the working population.
Real income is the income of individuals or nations after adjusting for inflation. It is calculated by dividing nominal income by the price level. Real variables such as real income and real GDP are variables that are measured in physical units, while nominal variables such as nominal income and nominal GDP are measured in monetary units. Therefore, real income is a more useful indicator of well-being since it measures the amount of goods and services that can be purchased with the income. Growth of real income is related to real gross national income per capita growth.
Household income is an economic standard that can be applied to one household, or aggregated across a large group such as a county, city, or the whole country. It is commonly used by the United States government and private institutions to describe a household's economic status or to track economic trends in the US.
Household income is a measure of income received by the household sector. It includes every form of cash income, e.g., salaries and wages, retirement income, investment income and cash transfers from the government. It may include near-cash government transfers like food stamps, and it may be adjusted to include social transfers in-kind, such as the value of publicly provided health care and education.
GDP density is a measure of economic activity by area. It is expressed as gross domestic product per square kilometer and can be calculated by multiplying GDP per capita of an area by the population density of that area. Amongst other uses it demonstrates the effects of geography on economy.
Poverty in Switzerland refers to people who are living in relative poverty in Switzerland. In 2018, 7.9% of the population or some 660,000 people in Switzerland were affected by income poverty. Switzerland has also a significant number of working poor, estimated at 145,000 in 2015.
Median household disposable income in the UK was £29,400 in the financial year ending (FYE) 2019, up 1.4% (£400) compared with growth over recent years; median income grew by an average of 0.7% per year between FYE 2017 and FYE 2019, compared with 2.8% between FYE 2013 and FYE 2017.
This article includes several ranked indicators for Chile's regions.
Social class in Luxembourg after 1945 is generally based on occupation, personal income, and spending power as well as rights to social welfare rather than birth circumstances and family background. The country's demographic situation has changed considerably since 1945, where a mostly blue-collar working population gave way to mostly white-collar occupations over the second half of the twentieth century. Differences in consumer patterns between the white-collar and blue-collar workers decreased considerably between 1963 and 1977, causing a socio-economic evolution that saw a wider sphere of access for both working and middle classes to consumer goods such as cars, white goods, and real estate, thus demonstrating an equalisation of social strata in terms of income and spending power. The population of Luxembourg has also altered in nature due to significant growth in numbers of residents and increases in migration patterns since the mid-twentieth century; in 1961 13% of the population consisted of non-Luxembourgers, by 2020, this is at 44.3. At present, 47% of the Luxembourgish population has a migrant background’, and this is as a result of the response to socioeconomic processes that drew large numbers of immigrants to the country in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Wealth is the total sum value of monetary assets and valuable material possessions owned by an individual, minus private debt, at a set point in time.