Disposable household and per capita income

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.

Household income can be measured on various bases, such as per household income, per capita income, per earner income, or on an equivalised basis. Because the number of people or earners per household can vary significantly between regions and over time, the choice of measurement basis can impact household income rankings and trends.

When taxes and mandatory contributions are subtracted from household income, the result is called net or disposable household income. A region's mean or median net household income can be used as an indicator of the purchasing power or material well-being of its residents. Mean income (average) is the amount obtained by dividing the total aggregate income of a group by the number of units in that group. 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.

Household disposable income per capita (OECD)

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Current

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The list below represents a national accounts-derived indicator for a country or territory's gross household disposable income per capita (including social transfers in kind). According to the OECD, 'household disposable income is income available to households such as wages and salaries, income from self-employment and unincorporated enterprises, income from pensions and other social benefits, and income from financial investments (less any payments of tax, social insurance contributions and interest on financial liabilities). 'Gross' means that depreciation costs are not subtracted.'[1] This indicator also takes account of social transfers in kind 'such as health or education provided for free or at reduced prices by governments and not-for-profit organisations.'[1] The data shown below is published by the OECD and is presented in purchasing power parity (PPP) in order to adjust for price differences between countries.

Household disposable income per capita (including social transfers in kind)
Location 2022* (USD PPP)[1]
  United States 62,300 (2021)
  Luxembourg 59,700
   Switzerland 52,000
  Germany 51,600
  Austria 50,200
  Netherlands 48,800
  Norway 47,700 (2021)
  Belgium 47,400
  Australia 46,800 (2021)
  France 45,548
  Sweden 43,900
  Finland 43,600
  Canada 43,600
  Denmark 42,800
  United Kingdom 43,038
  European Union 41,500
  Italy 41,075
  Ireland 38,300
  Slovenia 36,600
  Lithuania 36,300
  Czechia 35,600
  Spain 34,500
  Portugal 34,500
  Japan 33,900 (2021)
  South Korea 32,700
  Poland 32,200
  New Zealand 31,900 (2019)
  Turkey 30,600
  Hungary 29,800
  Slovakia 29,500
  Estonia 29,200
  Latvia 28,600
  Greece 28,000
  Chile 23,100 (2021)
  Russia 20,600 (2019)
  Mexico 20,500
  Costa Rica 17,900 (2021)

*Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred; if data is unavailable for 2022, figures for 2021, 2020 or 2019 are shown.

Median equivalised disposable income

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Annual median equivalised disposable income per person, by OECD country[2]

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

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Household accounts - Household disposable income - OECD Data". theOECD.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ "Income Distribution Database".
  4. ^ "OECD Data Explorer, Income distribution database, Median, Disposable Income".
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