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. F ...
amount that divides a population into two groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the
mean
A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...
(or
average
In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...
) 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 e ...
.
Median
The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...
income can be calculated by
household 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 gover ...
, by
personal income
In economics, personal income refers to the total earnings of an individual from various sources such as wages, investment ventures, and other sources of income. It encompasses all the products and money received by an individual.
Personal inco ...
, or for specific demographic groups. When
taxes
A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...
and mandatory contributions are subtracted from income, the result is called net or disposable income. The measurement of income from individuals and households, which is necessary to produce statistics such as the median, can pose challenges and 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 (table 3).
Median equivalised disposable income (OECD)
See also
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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 gover ...
*
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 e ...
*
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 averag ...
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List of countries by wealth per adult
This is a list of countries of the world by wealth per adult, from UBS's ''Global Wealth Databook.'' See table 3-1 for all countries, on pages 123-126, for mean and median wealth, Gini coefficient, distribution of adults (%) by wealth range, ...
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List of countries by GNI per capita growth
This is a list of countries by gross national income (GNI) per capita growth. This list is not to be confused with GDP per capita growth, GNI per capita or GDP growth.
List of countries and dependencies
The rate of GNI per capita growth in annu ...
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List of countries by real GDP per capita growth
This is a list of countries by real GDP per capita growth rate. These numbers take into account inflation and population growth rate but not purchasing power parity.Wage
A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work (human activity), work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include wiktionary:compensatory, compensatory payments such as ''minimum wage'', ''prevailin ...
Gross domestic product
Income in the United States
Household income lists
Macroeconomic indicators