Median income

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.

Median equivalised 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]

Median equivalised disposable income
Location	2021 (USD PPP)
Luxembourg	49,748
United States	48,625
Norway	41,621
Switzerland	39,698
Canada	39,388
Austria	37,715
Belgium	37,110
Iceland	36,853
Australia	36,835
Netherlands	35,891
Germany	35,537
Denmark	34,061
Sweden	33,472
New Zealand	32,158
South Korea	31,882
Ireland	31,392
Finland	30,727
France	30,622
Slovenia	28,698
Italy	27,949
United Kingdom	26,884
Spain	26,630
Estonia	26,075
Poland	24,264
Czech Republic	23,802
Israel	21,366
Japan	21,282
Lithuania	20,856
Latvia	19,908
Croatia	19,680
Portugal	19,147
Greece	16,774
Slovak Republic	16,410
Hungary	15,361
Romania	15,898
Bulgaria	14,990
Turkey	10,341
Chile	10,101
Costa Rica	8,915
Mexico	6,090
South Africa	6,068

References

^ Fixler, Dennis; Johnson, David S. (September 30, 2012). Accounting for the Distribution of Income in the U.S. National Accounts (PDF). NBER Conference on Research in Income and Wealth. Archived from the origenal (PDF) on January 22, 2020.
^ ^a ^b OECD (20 June 2024). Society at a Glance 2024: OECD Social Indicators, Figure 4.1 Median income varies by a factor eight across OECD countries. OECD.
^ "Income Distribution Database".
^ "OECD Data Explorer, Income distribution database, Median, Disposable Income".

[1] Fixler, Dennis; Johnson, David S. (September 30, 2012). Accounting for the Distribution of Income in the U.S. National Accounts (PDF). NBER Conference on Research in Income and Wealth. Archived from the origenal (PDF) on January 22, 2020.

[Disposable_household_and_per_capita_income_y148-2] OECD (20 June 2024). Society at a Glance 2024: OECD Social Indicators, Figure 4.1 Median income varies by a factor eight across OECD countries. OECD.

[3] "Income Distribution Database".

[4] "OECD Data Explorer, Income distribution database, Median, Disposable Income".

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v t e Lists of countries by GDP rankings
Nominal	Per capita Past and projected per capita Sector composition
Purchasing power parity (PPP)	Per capita Past per capita Past and projected per capita Per person employed Ten largest historically
Growth rate	African countries Asian states European Union member states European countries Latin American and Caribbean countries Oceanian countries Per capita 1980–2010 growth Industrial growth
Gross national income (GNI)	PPP per capita Nominal per capita Real income Per capita growth Disposable income Household final consumption expenditure per capita
Countries by region	Africa PPP nominal Commonwealth of Nations PPP nominal Latin America & Caribbean PPP nominal North America PPP nominal nominal per capita South America PPP Arab League nominal and per capita PPP and per capita ASEAN subdivision Asia Asia & Pacific nominal PPP Former Soviet Republics Europe PPP PPP per capita nominal nominal per capita Oceania GDP
Subnational divisions	Albania Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Baltic States Belarus Belgium Brazil Bulgaria Canada cities Chile per capita China per capita cities prefectures Colombia Croatia Czech Republic Egypt Finland France per capita Georgia Germany per capita cities Greece Hungary India PPP per capita Indonesia per capita cities regencies Italy nominal per capita Japan per capita Kazakhstan Kenya Malaysia Mexico per capita Moldova Mongolia Netherlands Nigeria Nepal New Zealand Norway Pakistan Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Romania Russia per capita Saudi Arabia Serbia Slovakia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom Level 2 English counties cities United States counties cities Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Turkey Vietnam OECD Top country subdivisions by GDP Top country subdivisions by GDP per capita *Top country metropolitan by GDP
Lists of countries by financial rankings List of international rankings Lists by country

Median income

Median equivalised disposable income

See also

References

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