Disposable household and per capita income


Household income is a measure of the combined incomes of all people sharing a particular household or place of residence. It includes every form of income, e.g., salaries and wages, retirement income, near cash government transfers like food stamps, and investment gains.
Average household incomes need not map directly to measures of an individual's earnings such as per capita income as numbers of people sharing households and numbers of income earners per household can vary significantly between regions and over time.
Average household income can be used as an indicator for the monetary well-being of a country's citizens. Mean or median net household income, after taxes and mandatory contributions, are taken as indicators of standard of living, because they include only disposable income and acknowledge people sharing accommodation benefit from pooling at least some of their living costs.
Median income is the amount that divides the income distribution into two equal groups, half having income above that amount, and half having income below that amount. Mean income is the amount obtained by dividing the total aggregate income of a group by the number of units in that group.

Disposable income per capita (OECD)

Mean

The list below represents a national accounts derived indicator based on adjusted gross income, which is defined as "the balance of primary incomes of an institutional unit or sector by adding all current transfers, except social transfers in kind, receivable by that unit or sector and subtracting all current transfers, except social transfers in kind, payable by that unit or sector; it is the balancing item in the Secondary Distribution of Income Account" "plus transfers in kind" received mainly from government, such as healthcare and education. In other words, it only includes taxes and transfers. It is based on the national accounts, which follows a standardized accounting so to allow for comparability. It is also not survey based, which avoids survey errors and underreporting. The following is published by the OECD and is presented in purchasing power parity so to adjust for costs of living.
RankCountry or territory2015 per capita
146,903
238,469
337,729
436,156
535,935
634,491
732,057
831,971
931,276
1031,630
1131,077
1230,570
1330,465
1430,429
1529,672
27,957
1627,320
1725,871
1825,095
1924,652
2022,412
2121,991
2221,921
2321,613
2421,246
2520,966
2619,525
2719,294
2819,235
2918,727
3017,226
3116,686
3216,080
3315,436

Median

The following table represents data from OECD's "median disposable income" metric per person, which includes all forms of income as well as taxes and transfers in kind from governments for benefits such as healthcare and education. This metric, in addition to using a median rather than a mean, uses "data calculated according to the new OECD terms of reference"; compared to previous terms of reference, these "include a more detailed breakdown of current transfers received and paid by households as well as a revised definition of household income, including the value of goods produced for own consumption as an element of self-employed income." As OECD displays median disposable incomes in each country's respective currency, the values were converted here using the World Bank's PPP conversion factors, accounting for each country's cost of living in the year that the disposable median income was recorded. Unless noted otherwise, all data refers to 2016.
RankCountry/Territory2016 median personal disposable income, after taxes and transfers
1$36,537
2$35,542
3$34,514
4$32,496
5$32,150
6$31,590
7$29,765
8$29,571
9$29,361
10$28,926
11$27,569
12$26,774
13$26,520
14$25,933
15$25,865
16$25,190
17$23,023
18$22,603
19$22,362
20$21,788
21$21,459
22$19,393
23$17,984
24$17,715
25$16,507
26$15,703
27$15,403
28$13,695
29$13,220
28$12,795
29$11,744
30$10,580
31$9,013
32$7,325
33$5,946
34$4,485
35$4,203
36$2,524

Luxembourg Income Study

has a publicly available database with comparable statistics on household incomes for several countries, as has the OECD. These are the sources used.
Below are presented the mean and median disposable household incomes, adjusted for differences in household size. Thus, the figures presented are per person and after all income taxes and mandatory social contributions are paid. All figures were converted using respective year purchasing power parity for private consumption, which is recommended when comparing incomes internationally. The PPP conversion rates are taken directly from the OECD database. All incomes are in the prices when income was earned, and refer to year 2004, except for Australia, UK, and Sweden. The exact definition of income can be seen in the LIS website. Generally, it includes all cash income and excludes most non-cash income. Note that capital gains are excluded from the income definition.
Caution should be made when comparing countries based on a strict ranking, since not all datasets are capturing income equally. For instance, income spent on private health insurance, which in 2004 was about $1300 per household in the US, is not subtracted. In terms of underreporting, the U.S. dataset captured only 80% of the gross income aggregate as of 2004. By contrast, Finland, UK, and Norway registered much higher coverage with less underreporting.

Mean equivalized disposable household income (PPP) $

RankCountryNCUCurrency in 2004PPP rate 2004Mean Income
132,195United States Dollar132,195
233,785Canadian Dollar1.2726,602
349,844Swiss Franc1.8826,512
416,685British Pound0.6426,070
5254,243Norwegian krone9.825,943
622,527Euro0.8925,311
720,901Euro0.9122,968
8202,275Danish Krone9.022,475
920,607Euro0.9222,398
10203,460Swedish Krona9.621,193
1119,563Euro0.92421,173
1218,587,000Won886.220,937
1319,547Euro0.95220,532
1429,417Australian Dollar1.4420,428
152,986,594Yen150.819,805
1614,003Euro0.78817,770
1715,835Euro0.9117,401
1814,844Polish złoty2.087,136

Median equivalized disposable household income (PPP) $

Median household income divides households in a country or region into two equal segments with the first half of households earning less than the median household income and the other half earning more. It is considered by many statisticians to be a better indicator than the mean household income as it is not dramatically affected by unusually high or low values.
RankCountryNCUCurrency in 2004PPP rateMedian income
126,672United States Dollar126,672
245,050Swiss Franc1.8823,962
3233,186Norwegian Krone9.823,794
429,394Canadian Dollar1.2723,144
520,134Euro0.8922,622
6192,937Danish krone9.021,437
713,637British Pound0.63721,408
818,507Euro0.9120,337
918,507Euro0.9120,116
10189,475Swedish Krona9.619,736
1117,818Euro0.92419,284
1216,665,877Won886.218,806
1317,120Euro0.95217,984
1425,581Australian Dollar1.4417,764
152,644,730Yen150.817,538
1612,319Euro0.78815,633
1713,367Euro0.9114,689
1812,697Polish złoty2.086,104