Visualizing The Poverty Line Salary Around the World
According to the World Bank, 10 percent of the world’s population lives in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1.90 USD per day. While this threshold is shockingly low (it would amount to an income of less than $1,000 per year), residents in some countries can make significantly more money and still be classified as living in poverty.
Eurostat defines the At-Risk-Of-Poverty (AROP) threshold as having less than 60 percent of the country’s median income. Our latest visualization uses income data from census agencies in different countries to show how much money each country’s household must make to be considered at risk of poverty.
In order to ensure consistency when comparing different countries, we translated foreign currencies into USD using publicly available exchange rates accessed in March 2019.
Top 5 Countries With the Highest At-Risk-Of-Poverty Line Salary
1. Singapore: $70,640 median income | $42,384 Poverty Line Salary
2. United States: $60,336 median income | $36,202 Poverty Line Salary
3. Australia: $53,091 median income | $31,855 Poverty Line Salary
4. Canada: $50,325 median income | $30,195 Poverty Line Salary
5. Switzerland: $50,313 median income | $30,188 Poverty Line Salary
Bottom 5 Countries With the Lowest At-Risk-Of-Poverty Line Salary
1. Serbia: $2,889 median income | $1,733 Poverty Line Salary
2. Romania: $3,126 median income | $1,876 Poverty Line Salary
3. Bulgaria: $4,090 median income | $2,454 Poverty Line Salary
4. Turkey: $4,281 median income | $2,568 Poverty Line Salary
5. Hungary: $5,692 median income | $3,415 Poverty Line Salary
For visualization purposes, we chose to analyze countries where the data was available and updated. Poverty thresholds and other measures of economic well-being can also vary within a country, based on median household income and cost-of-living within individual regions or cities. Interested in how income needs vary within a single country? View this visualization which details how much money Americans need for economic security in each state.
