Median income

Last updated: 2025-07-22 19:04:17

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. When taxes and mandatory contributions are subtracted from income, the result is called net or disposable income. 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]

Median equivalised disposable income (OECD)

The median equivalised household 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 the 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 original (PDF) on January 22, 2020.
1 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.
↑ "Income Distribution Database".
↑ "OECD Data Explorer, Income distribution database, Median, Disposable Income".

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[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 original (PDF) on January 22, 2020.

[Disposable_household_and_per_capita_income_y148-2] 1 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".

[1]

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Nominal	GDP (nominal) Past and projected Sector composition
Purchasing power parity (PPP)	GDP (PPP) Past Past and projected Ten largest historically
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Median income

Median equivalised disposable income (OECD)

See also

References