Median income
Macroeconomic indicator
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Related on Lably
Through Income, Median and Gross domestic product
Measure
The median income differs from the national average salary or GDP per capita due to the income distribution. The median income is an economic indicator of the standard of living for the median person in a country. Median income growth correlates with consumer confidence. In line with the median voter theorem the median income growth is a democratic indicator of economic growth.
The measurement of income from individuals and households, which is necessary to produce statistics such as the median, can pose challenges and can 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.
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Median equivalised household disposable income
Disposable income is market income (income from work and capital) after accounting for public cash transfers received and direct taxes and social security contributions paid. It excludes in-kind services provided to households by governments and private entities, consumption taxes, and imputed income flows due to home ownership..
The median equivalised household disposable income is the median household disposable income equivalised by dividing 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. 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.
Median Daily Disposable Income per person
The following table shows the daily median per person income after taxes and transfers according to the Poverty and Inequality Platform of the World Bank.