Income: See how rich you are compared to others

Interactive Calculator

income distribution
Poor, rich or middle class? How wealthy are you compared to others?

are you rich Only the least would say yes – even those who officially belong to the higher-income group prefer to think of themselves as middle-class. Only a few count themselves among the highest-income group. Are you already really rich with the amount of your own income?

The German Economic Institute (IW) in Cologne has published an interactive calculator that compares one’s own net household income to income in Germany. To do this, the experts evaluated data from the household surveys of the socio-economic panel for 2016. The focus of the assessment was what is known as the needs-weighted median income.

There is a simple logic behind this: larger households have to spend more money on living space and food, but some costs (e.g. for insurance) are passed on to several people in the household. It is also taken into account that children incur different costs than adults.

Median income and average earnings

In 2016, this needs-weighted average income for a single household was 1869 euros per month. This is the median income: half have higher incomes, the other half have lower incomes. The total divides all income earners into two equal groups – and should not be confused with the average income. All income is added together and the average value is calculated. “Compared to the average income, the median income is more robust to statistical outliers,” according to the Cologne Institute for Economic Research.

problem region in Germany

Poverty lives in the Ruhr area – and that affects children in particular

04/02/2019

The IW Cologne calculator not only shows how wealthy people are compared to the general population, but also enables comparisons with population groups such as single parents, couples without children or single people.

Rich is someone who has at least 3440 euros net per month as a single person and is therefore one of the ten percent with the highest income. Couples without children (or with children who have already moved out) belong to this group if the net household income is 5160 euros or more. “Rural dwellers fare worse than city dwellers – their needs-weighted median income is 116 euros less.

It also makes a difference whether you live in East or West Germany. At 2,839 euros net, a single person in the East is in the top ten percent, and in West Germany it is in the top 20,” say the authors of the study. In addition to where you live, the living situation also plays an important role. “People who live in their own homes often find themselves again at the top of the income distribution”, says study author Judith Niehues.

income

In Germany, poverty is female – and these are the reasons for it

03/08/2017

Also read:

– The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer – and the middle class is shrinking

– Poor despite work – the fairy tale of Germany’s job miracle

– Hartz IV despite a full-time job: When work leads to poverty

– Poverty lives in the Ruhr area

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