The median income is the
income
Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. For ...
amount that divides a population into two equal groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the
mean
There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set.
For a data set, the ''arithme ...
(or
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
) income. Both of these are ways of understanding
income distribution
In economics, income distribution covers how a country's total GDP is distributed amongst its population. Economic theory and economic policy have long seen income and its distribution as a central concern. Unequal distribution of income causes eco ...
.
Median
In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic fe ...
income can be calculated by
household 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 stamp ...
, by
personal income
In economics, personal income refers to an individual's total earnings from wages, investment enterprises, and other ventures. It is the sum of all the incomes received by all the individuals or household during a given period. Personal income is ...
, or for specific demographic groups.
Median equivalent adult income
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. The figures are
equivalised by dividing income by the square root of household size. 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. Data are in
United States dollar
The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the officia ...
s at current prices and current
purchasing power parity
Purchasing power parity (PPP) is the measurement of prices in different countries that uses the prices of specific goods to compare the absolute purchasing power of the countries' currency, currencies. PPP is effectively the ratio of the price of ...
for private consumption for the reference year.
*An academic study on the Census income data claims that when correcting for underreporting, U.S. gross median household income was 15% higher in 2010 (table 3).
See also
*
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 stam ...
*
List of countries by average wage
The average wage is a measure of total income after taxes divided by total number of employees employed. In this article, the average wage is adjusted for living expenses "purchasing power parity" (PPP). This is not to be confused with the Disposa ...
*
List of countries by wealth per adult
This is a list of countries of the world by wealth per adult or household, from sources such as Credit Suisse's annual ''Global Wealth Databook'' See table 3-1 for all countries, on pages 119-122, for mean and median wealth, Gini coefficient ...
*
List of U.S. states and territories by income
This is a list of U.S. states, territories and the District of Columbia by income. Data is given according to the 2019 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-Year Estimates, except for the American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U. ...
*
Income distribution
In economics, income distribution covers how a country's total GDP is distributed amongst its population. Economic theory and economic policy have long seen income and its distribution as a central concern. Unequal distribution of income causes eco ...
*
Household income in the United States
Household income is an economic standard that can be applied to one household, or aggregated across a large group such as a county, city, or the whole country. It is commonly used by the United States government and private institutions to ...
*
Median household income in Australia and New Zealand
Median household income is commonly used to measure the relative prosperity of populations in different geographical locations. It divides households into two equal segments with the first half of households earning less than the median househo ...
*
Median income per household member The median income per member of household is a measure used by statisticians and the US Census Bureau to determine the median income that exists in a household for each of its members. In order to obtain this number the median household income is di ...
*
*
Poverty in the United States
In the United States, poverty has both social and political implications. In 2020, there were 37.2 million people in poverty. Some of the many causes include income inequality, inflation, unemployment, debt traps and poor education.Western, B ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Median Household Income
Wage
A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include compensatory payments such as ''minimum wage'', ''prevailing wage'', and ''yearly bonuses,'' and remuner ...
Gross domestic product
Income in the United States
Household income lists