The global median income is $7 per day
Half of all humans alive — roughly 4 billion people — earn less than $2,500 per year, or about $7 per day. This is not an abstract poverty measure; it is the midpoint of the global income distribution. If you earn more than this, you are in the top half of humanity by income.
Source: World Bank Global Income Distribution, 2024
The richest 1% captured 38% of all new wealth since 1995
Between 1995 and 2021, the wealthiest 1% of the global population captured 38 cents of every dollar of new wealth created on Earth. The bottom 50% captured just 2 cents of every dollar. The gap isn't just large — it is actively widening at a structural level.
Source: Oxfam Inequality Report, 2023
The US minimum wage is in the global top 8%
The US federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour works out to roughly $15,000/year for a full-time worker. This places a minimum wage American worker in approximately the global top 8% of earners — wealthier than 92% of all people on Earth, even at the lowest legally mandated wage in a major economy.
Based on World Bank income distribution data
Elon Musk earns more in 4 minutes than a Kenyan teacher earns in a lifetime
At peak wealth, Elon Musk was adding approximately $8.4 billion per week to his net worth — about $50,000 per minute. A Kenyan secondary school teacher earns roughly $3,500/year. The teacher would need to work over 14,000 years to match what Musk made in under 5 minutes. This is not criticism — it illustrates the almost incomprehensible scale of the distribution's tail.
Bloomberg Billionaires Index, ILO Kenya salary data
3.4 billion people live on less than $5.50/day
The World Bank's "lower-middle income" poverty line is $5.50/day (about $2,000/year). As of 2024, approximately 3.4 billion people — over 40% of humanity — live below this threshold. These are not people in "absolute poverty" by the strictest measure, but by any reasonable standard of human wellbeing, they face daily economic precarity.
World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform, 2024
Global inequality has fallen — but within-country inequality has risen
Here's the nuanced truth: inequality between countries has actually decreased over the past 30 years as China, India, and other emerging economies grew rapidly. But within many of those same countries, inequality has increased. The global middle class has grown, but the gains within high-income countries have gone disproportionately to the top.
WID World Inequality Report 2022
A Swiss garbage collector earns more than an Indian software engineer
The average Swiss garbage collector earns approximately CHF 65,000/year (~$72,000 USD). A mid-level software engineer in India earns around ₹1,200,000/year (~$14,500 USD). The location of your birth has a greater impact on your lifetime income than almost any other single factor — more than education, industry, or effort. This is sometimes called the "birthplace lottery."
Try our Who Earns More? game for more surprising comparisons like this.
The bottom 50% own just 2% of global wealth
Income inequality is stark, but wealth inequality is dramatically more extreme. The bottom 50% of the global population — around 4 billion people — collectively own just 2% of global wealth. The top 1% own over 45%. Wealth compounds: those who have it generate more from it, while those without it cannot build a buffer against shocks.
Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2023
Most people dramatically underestimate how wealthy they are globally
Studies show that people in high-income countries typically estimate they are in roughly the "middle" of the global income distribution. In reality, a household earning $50,000/year in the US is in approximately the global top 1%. This misperception has real effects on generosity, political attitudes toward redistribution, and personal financial satisfaction.
The main purpose of this site is to close that perception gap — try the calculator.
For the first time in history, a global middle class exists
Despite all the above, here is the optimistic fact: the 21st century has seen the emergence of a genuine global middle class for the first time in human history. Roughly 3.5 billion people now live between $10 and $100 per day — able to afford discretionary spending, accumulate some savings, and provide basic security for their families. 200 years ago, this class essentially did not exist. This is one of the greatest achievements of modern economic development.
Brookings Institution Global Middle Class Study, 2022
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