poverty in the u.s.a.
sure, america is rich. but a lot of people love to argue that this doesn’t really matter when it comes to the quality of life for the poorest and most vulnerable. simplistic measures like gdp don’t account for the realities of taxes or the social safety net, and they certainly don’t show what people actually take home. fortunately, the luxembourg income study (l.i.s.) fixes that by adjusting for taxes, transfers, and purchasing power parity.
unlike gdp, which just shows how much the economy is churning, the lis looks at disposable incomes, giving us a much better picture of how well the poorest in each country are actually faring. so, while america might be swimming in wealth, let’s see what the data says when we look beyond the headlines and really dig into how vulnerable populations are doing.
let’s explore that data, but starting at the 9th decile (80th-90th percentile) and work our way down to create some suspense. note: the l.i.s.’s method of defining deciles does exclude the top 10% from the decile analysis. this is a deliberate choice to focus on income inequality within the majority of the population, while still providing separate analysis for the top earners.
9th decile
first, we see america at almost 90,000 u.s. dollars per year.
this map gives us some perspective but let’s just paste the tabular data for a quick in-depth view at a glance.
╔═══════════════════╦════════════╗
║ Country or region ║ 2022 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ United States ║ $88,657.84 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Luxembourg ║ $88,340.17 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Switzerland ║ $72,545.52 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Canada ║ $67,937.83 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Norway ║ $65,904.97 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Australia ║ $65,708.34 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ South Korea ║ $63,562.71 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Germany ║ $60,793.74 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Austria ║ $59,529.82 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Ireland ║ $59,505.04 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Netherlands ║ $58,804.62 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Belgium ║ $56,216.72 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Denmark ║ $54,227.96 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Sweden ║ $53,821.22 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ United Kingdom ║ $53,466.17 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ France ║ $50,714.82 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Spain ║ $50,667.12 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Japan ║ $48,894.11 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Israel ║ $48,445.94 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Lithuania ║ $44,732.97 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Italy ║ $39,852.17 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Russia ║ $35,847.79 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Poland ║ $33,224.89 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ South Africa ║ $29,866.51 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Romania ║ $28,279.85 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Chile ║ $27,544.43 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Uruguay ║ $26,976.72 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Slovakia ║ $24,340.88 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ China ║ $23,378.23 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Palestine ║ $22,464.70 ║
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║ Paraguay ║ $20,743.87 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Brazil ║ $20,176.11 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Colombia ║ $17,838.89 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Serbia ║ $17,831.34 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Mexico ║ $17,624.02 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Peru ║ $13,512.86 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Georgia ║ $11,689.10 ║
╠═══════════════════╬════════════╣
║ Mali ║ $6,371.31 ║
╚═══════════════════╩════════════╝okay, so we’re good for the rich. but what about the slightly less rich?
8th decile
i’ll reduce the list here a bit for practicality, but will make sure we’re including a lot of countries.
Country or region | 2022
--------------------|---------
Luxembourg | $73,782.90
United States | $65,985.86
Switzerland | $58,074.59
Canada | $55,533.57
Norway | $54,801.71
Australia | $52,272.80
South Korea | $50,517.53
Austria | $49,833.59
Germany | $49,070.82
Netherlands | $48,416.09
Ireland | $48,207.68
Belgium | $47,888.92
Denmark | $44,746.78
Sweden | $44,296.38
United Kingdom | $43,060.86
France | $40,954.98
Spain | $39,848.28
Japan | $39,349.46 okay, luxembourg has jumped ahead of america here and my feelings are a little hurt, but i’m okay. we’re still crushing every other country.
7th decile
country or region | 2022
--------------------|---------
luxembourg | $63,925.60
united states | $53,948.91
switzerland | $49,900.27
norway | $48,228.27
canada | $47,791.41
australia | $44,471.71
netherlands | $42,928.74
austria | $42,904.35
ireland | $42,266.87
belgium | $42,205.80
south korea | $42,129.35
germany | $41,875.64
denmark | $39,148.93
sweden | $38,957.83
united kingdom | $36,573.02
france | $35,274.68
spain | $34,026.80
japan | $33,887.73ha! still, so much winning. take that world!
6th decile
country or region | 2022
--------------------|---------
luxembourg | $56,302.00
united states | $45,382.17
switzerland | $43,499.45
norway | $43,287.27
canada | $42,097.42
australia | $38,744.25
netherlands | $38,402.11
austria | $38,274.77
belgium | $37,955.52
germany | $37,220.50
ireland | $36,871.91
south korea | $36,247.10
denmark | $34,843.83
sweden | $34,416.88
united kingdom | $31,801.81
france | $31,210.88
japan | $29,674.69
spain | $29,578.36we can’t seem to shake luxembourg off our tail, but we’re still doing a lot of winning. a lot of winning.
5th decile
country or region | 2022
--------------------|---------
luxembourg | $48,739.31
norway | $39,190.02
united states | $38,377.98
switzerland | $38,039.83
canada | $37,113.67
netherlands | $34,566.88
austria | $34,170.75
belgium | $33,953.47
australia | $33,330.09
germany | $33,078.10
ireland | $32,546.33
south korea | $31,379.41
denmark | $31,134.17
sweden | $30,720.28
france | $27,880.98
united kingdom | $27,743.99
japan | $25,899.26
spain | $25,887.444th decile
country or region | 2022
--------------------|---------
luxembourg | $42,955.24
norway | $35,406.18
switzerland | $33,718.87
canada | $32,802.29
united states | $32,093.90
netherlands | $30,573.42
belgium | $30,079.24
austria | $30,059.13
germany | $29,470.15
ireland | $28,703.35
australia | $28,570.20
denmark | $27,626.86
sweden | $27,064.46
south korea | $26,921.98
france | $24,895.75
united kingdom | $24,099.71
japan | $22,806.49
spain | $22,521.293rd decile
country or region | 2022
--------------------|---------
luxembourg | $37,022.90
norway | $31,501.35
switzerland | $29,359.60
canada | $28,562.98
austria | $26,306.72
netherlands | $26,274.14
united states | $26,243.65 <--- i still claim this is #winning
belgium | $25,984.12
germany | $25,590.33
ireland | $24,694.16
australia | $24,203.53
denmark | $24,148.32
sweden | $23,169.89
south korea | $22,787.46
france | $21,909.17
united kingdom | $20,840.44
japan | $19,298.87
spain | $19,029.512nd decile
country or region | 2022
--------------------|---------
luxembourg | $31,728.18
norway | $26,809.20
switzerland | $24,862.74
canada | $24,242.77
austria | $22,516.02
netherlands | $22,283.74
belgium | $21,894.77
germany | $21,228.38
ireland | $21,216.51
denmark | $20,947.45
united states | $20,765.57 <--- 11th in the world ain't so bad, eh?
australia | $19,949.84
sweden | $19,275.02
france | $18,612.27
south korea | $18,110.51
united kingdom | $17,724.69
japan | $15,918.61
spain | $15,602.401st decile — the poorest
country or region | 2022
--------------------|---------
luxembourg | $25,551.07
norway | $21,074.70
canada | $19,490.25
switzerland | $19,144.82
belgium | $18,152.85
netherlands | $17,752.94
austria | $17,182.62
denmark | $16,873.32
ireland | $16,656.04
germany | $15,814.61
sweden | $15,451.26
australia | $15,345.67
united states | $14,864.20
france | $14,715.79
united kingdom | $13,993.62
south korea | $12,773.53
japan | $11,544.08
spain | $11,378.56with all their social spending, the french poor are poorer than america’s poor. and we’re not that far behind denmark.
