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 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, per capita, per earner, 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.
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.
| Rank | Country/Territory | 2022* (USD PPP) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 62,300 (2021) | |
| 2 | 59,700 | |
| 3 | 52,000 | |
| 4 | 51,600 | |
| 5 | 50,200 | |
| 6 | 48,800 | |
| 7 | 47,700 (2021) | |
| 8 | 47,400 | |
| 9 | 46,800 (2021) | |
| 10 | 46,400 | |
| 11 | 43,900 | |
| 12 | 43,600 | |
| 13 | 43,600 | |
| 14 | 42,800 | |
| 41,500 | ||
| 15 | 40,800 | |
| 16 | 40,400 | |
| 17 | 38,300 | |
| 18 | 36,600 | |
| 19 | 36,300 | |
| 20 | 35,600 | |
| 21 | 34,500 | |
| 22 | 34,500 | |
| 23 | 33,900 (2021) | |
| 24 | 32,700 | |
| 25 | 32,200 | |
| 26 | 31,900 (2019) | |
| 27 | 29,800 | |
| 28 | 29,500 | |
| 29 | 29,200 | |
| 30 | 28,600 | |
| 31 | 28,000 | |
| 32 | 23,100 (2021) | |
| 33 | 20,600 (2019) | |
| 34 | 20,500 | |
| 35 | 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.
The following table represents data from OECD's "median disposable income per person" metric; disposable income deducts from gross income the value of taxes on income and wealth paid and of contributions paid by households to public social security schemes.[2] The figures are 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. As OECD displays median disposable incomes in each country's respective currency, the values were converted here using PPP conversion factors for private consumption from the same source, accounting for each country's cost of living in the year that the disposable median income was recorded.[3] Data are in United States dollars at current prices and current purchasing power parity for private consumption for the reference year.
| Country | Median income (US$, PPP) | Year | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 48,625 | 2023 | ||
| 2 | 47,568 | 2020 | ||
| 3 | 41,621 | 2021 | ||
| 4 | 39,264 | 2019 | ||
| 5 | 38,582 | 2020 | ||
| 6 | 36,992 | 2020 | ||
| 7 | 35,891 | 2021 | ||
| 8 | 35,518 | 2020 | ||
| 9 | 35,153 | 2020 | ||
| 10 | 34,316 | 2017 | ||
| 11 | 33,569 | 2019 | ||
| 12 | 33,472 | 2021 | ||
| 13 | 33,288 | 2019 | ||
| 14 | 31,752 | 2020 | ||
| 15 | 30,818 | 2020 | ||
| 16 | 30,727 | 2021 | ||
| 17 | 30,526 | 2020 | ||
| 18 | 29,131 | 2019 | ||
| 19 | 27,519 | 2020 | ||
| 20 | 26,713 | 2020 | ||
| 21 | 25,383 | 2020 | ||
| 22 | 25,288 | 2020 | ||
| 23 | 23,660 | 2020 | ||
| 24 | 21,904 | 2020 | ||
| 25 | 21,694 | 2018 | ||
| 26 | 21,063 | 2020 | ||
| 27 | 21,034 | 2020 | ||
| 28 | 20,833 | 2020 | ||
| 29 | 19,347 | 2020 | ||
| 30 | 18,665 | 2020 | ||
| 31 | 18,607 | 2020 | ||
| 32 | 17,584 | 2020 | ||
| 33 | 16,409 | 2020 | ||
| 34 | 16,163 | 2017 | ||
| 35 | 15,897 | 2020 | ||
| 36 | 15,501 | 2020 | ||
| 37 | 14,661 | 2020 | ||
| 38 | 11,242 | 2019 | ||
| 39 | 10,058 | 2017 | ||
| 40 | 8,915 | 2021 | ||
| 41 | 6,942 | 2016 | ||
| 42 | 5,930 | 2020 | ||
| 43 | 5,684 | 2017 | ||
| 44 | 5,568 | 2023 | ||
| 45 | 2,873 | 2011 |
The following table shows data from Eurostat on household median equivalised net income adjusted for differences in purchasing power between countries.[4] According to Eurostat, 'the total disposable income of a household is calculated by adding together the personal income received by all household members plus income received at household level. Disposable household income includes: All income from work (employee wages and self-employment earnings), private income from investment and property, transfers between households, all social transfers received in cash including old-age pensions.'[5] This indicator does not include non-monetary income components such as the value of goods produced for own consumption, social transfers in kind and non-cash employee income (except company cars). Furthermore, to take account of differences in household sizes, disposable income per household is equivalised.
| Country | 2007 | 2011 | 2015 | 2018 | 2021* | 2022** | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26,847 | 26,601 | 29,285 | 27,550 | 32,132 | 33,214 | ||
| 20,504 | 22,833 | 26,545 | 26,934 | 26,350 | 27,161 | ||
| 20,700 | 24,251 | 28,353 | 26,296 | 26,327 | 27,093 | ||
| 17,538 | 18,833 | 19,389 | 21,543 | 24,551 | 25,436 | ||
| 17,810 | 20,425 | 21,981 | 23,204 | 24,450 | 25,119 | ||
| 16,312 | 18,106 | 19,954 | 21,336 | 22,696 | 24,124 | ||
| 16,875 | 19,184 | 20,384 | 21,641 | 22,899 | 23,244 | ||
| 17,323 | 18,395 | 20,342 | 21,917 | 23,337 | 23,197 | ||
| 15,241 | 17,933 | 19,430 | 20,048 | 20,078 | 20,941 | ||
| 12,442 | 14,029 | 16,753 | 17,932 | 19,012 | 20,698 | ||
| 15,166 | 18,170 | 19,885 | 20,260 | 20,100 | 20,575 | ||
| 15,911 | 18,031 | 20,154 | 20,429 | 20,673 | 20,568 | ||
| 17,722 | 16,628 | 17,656 | 19,464 | 20,099 | 20,207 | ||
| 18,252 | 19,162 | 15,313 | 17,505 | 18,334 | 19,719 | ||
| 12,922 | 13,940 | 15,102 | 15,771 | 17,579 | 18,792 | ||
| 14,497 | 15,776 | 15,395 | 16,715 | 17,304 | 18,472 | ||
| 12,689 | 14,424 | 14,463 | 16,030 | 16,303 | 17,255 | ||
| 6,490 | 7,491 | 10,423 | 13,374 | 14,805 | 17,075 | ||
| 8,841 | 9,989 | 11,652 | 13,264 | 13,815 | 15,354 | ||
| 5,609 | 8,333 | 9,957 | 11,546 | 13,859 | 14,953 | ||
| 5,708 | 6,068 | 8,251 | 10,702 | 13,742 | 14,202 | ||
| 5,585 | 5,944 | 8,108 | 10,016 | 12,003 | 12,899 | ||
| - | 7,423 | 8,253 | 9,870 | 11,385 | 12,277 | ||
| 8,919 | 9,621 | 10,317 | 10,801 | 12,404 | 12,267 | ||
| 11,320 | 11,627 | 8,810 | 9,258 | 9,920 | 10,841 | ||
| 6,490 | 7,135 | 7,938 | 8,634 | 9,983 | 10,229 | ||
| 2,783 | 3,641 | 4,357 | 6,278 | 8,693 | 10,039 | ||
| 5,606 | 8,975 | 10,220 | 9,744 | 9,425 | 9,826 | ||
| 3,296 | 5,824 | 6,882 | 7,208 | 9,375 | 9,671 | ||
| - | - | 4,722 | 5,226 | 6,968 | 7,567 | ||
| - | - | 5,645 | 6,831 | 6,328 | 7,304 | ||
| 4,054 | 4,766 | 5,668 | 6,467 | 6,215 | - | ||
| - | - | - | 4,003 | 4,275 | - | ||
| 19,893 | 18,024 | 20,804 | 23,637 | - | - | ||
| 18,774 | 15,776 | 17,784 | 18,423 | - | - | ||
| - | - | 4,556 | 5,496 | - | - | ||
| - | - | - | 3,953 | - | - |
* The most recent data for Iceland, the United Kingdom and Kosovo is from 2018. The most recent data for North Macedonia is from 2020.** The most recent data for Turkey and Albania is from 2021.