What percentage of the world makes over $100k a year? Only 2.9% (2026)
Only 2.9% of the world’s adults, about 160 million people, make over $100,000 a year before tax. In the US it is 26%, in the UK 14%. All 77 countries.
Short answer: about 2.9% of the world’s adults, around 160 million people, have a pre-tax income above $100,000 a year. In the United States the share is 26%, in the United Kingdom 14%, in Germany 12% and in Canada 15%. The highest shares are in Luxembourg, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland.
These are shares of all adults aged 20 and over, including students, retirees and people without paid work, so they are lower than figures you may see for full-time workers only.
Which countries have the most $100k earners?
Two very different kinds of country top the list. Luxembourg (77%), Switzerland (42%) and Ireland (31%) have high wages and large financial or multinational sectors. Norway (51%) and Iceland (46%) are high-wage countries with compressed pay scales, where a large middle group earns just above the line.
The United States (26%) has a lower share than the Nordic high-wage countries but far more people above the line: about 67 million American adults, the most of any country and about four in ten of the world’s total.
$50,000, $100,000 and $250,000 in every country
| # | Country | Earn over $50k | Earn over $100k | Earn over $250k | Adults earning over $100k | Median income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luxembourg | 86% | 77% | 31% | 410,000 | $195,000 |
| 2 | Norway | 83% | 51% | 6.5% | 2.2 million | $102,000 |
| 3 | Iceland | 83% | 46% | 4.1% | 140,000 | $95,300 |
| 4 | Switzerland | 80% | 42% | 4.5% | 3 million | $90,600 |
| 5 | Ireland | 69% | 31% | 4.7% | 1.2 million | $69,800 |
| 6 | Singapore | 68% | 29% | 9.6% | 1.4 million | $68,600 |
| 7 | United States | 53% | 26% | 5.2% | 67 million | $53,500 |
| 8 | Netherlands | 60% | 25% | 2.5% | 3.6 million | $59,400 |
| 9 | Australia | 57% | 25% | 3.1% | 5.1 million | $60,000 |
| 10 | Denmark | 65% | 24% | 2.5% | 1.1 million | $67,200 |
| 11 | Sweden | 65% | 17% | 1.4% | 1.4 million | $63,300 |
| 12 | Belgium | 48% | 15% | 1.9% | 1.4 million | $48,200 |
| 13 | Canada | 46% | 15% | 2.1% | 4.7 million | $46,200 |
| 14 | Hong Kong | 35% | 15% | 3.7% | 920,000 | $36,500 |
| 15 | United Kingdom | 49% | 14% | 2.1% | 7.4 million | $48,900 |
| 16 | Germany | 43% | 12% | 2.1% | 8.3 million | $43,900 |
| 17 | United Arab Emirates | 28% | 12% | 3.3% | 1.1 million | $33,600 |
| 18 | Austria | 53% | 12% | 1.7% | 860,000 | $51,700 |
| 19 | Finland | 46% | 10% | 1% | 470,000 | $46,500 |
| 20 | France | 41% | 8.1% | 1.1% | 4.3 million | $42,100 |
| 21 | New Zealand | 35% | 7.6% | 1.2% | 300,000 | $43,000 |
| 22 | Malta | 31% | 7.6% | 1% | 33,000 | $33,900 |
| 23 | Taiwan | 22% | 7.1% | 1.6% | 1.4 million | $24,100 |
| 24 | Italy | 26% | 5.3% | 0.6% | 2.6 million | $34,200 |
| 25 | Japan | 9% | 4.9% | 1.2% | 5.1 million | $24,700 |
| 26 | Lithuania | 21% | 4.6% | 0.4% | 110,000 | $19,000 |
| 27 | Spain | 21% | 4.1% | 0.6% | 1.6 million | $31,900 |
| 28 | Estonia | 17% | 3.9% | 0.7% | 41,000 | $23,000 |
| 29 | South Korea | 18% | 3.6% | 0.6% | 1.5 million | $25,300 |
| 30 | Cyprus | 14% | 3.5% | 0.3% | 27,000 | $22,800 |
| 31 | Portugal | 14% | 3.5% | 0.5% | 290,000 | $23,800 |
| 32 | Slovenia | 20% | 3.2% | 0.4% | 55,000 | $30,200 |
| 33 | Uruguay | 12% | 3.1% | 0.8% | 78,000 | $16,700 |
| 34 | Costa Rica | 7.5% | 2.9% | 0.9% | 110,000 | $11,000 |
| 35 | Chile | 4.8% | 2.8% | 0.6% | 420,000 | $7,420 |
| 36 | Croatia | 10% | 2.8% | 0.3% | 86,000 | $21,200 |
| 37 | Mexico | 4.9% | 2.7% | 0.8% | 2.5 million | $6,630 |
| 38 | Romania | 7.8% | 2.3% | 0.4% | 340,000 | $14,500 |
| 39 | Czechia | 10% | 2.2% | 0.4% | 180,000 | $30,100 |
| 40 | Greece | 9.6% | 2.2% | 0.4% | 180,000 | $22,900 |
| 41 | Turkey | 6.1% | 2.1% | 0.6% | 1.3 million | $8,450 |
| 42 | Latvia | 8.9% | 2.1% | 0.2% | 31,000 | $17,000 |
| 43 | Poland | 8.4% | 2.1% | 0.4% | 630,000 | $19,700 |
| 44 | Hungary | 7% | 2.1% | 0.4% | 160,000 | $22,000 |
| 45 | Russia | 5.9% | 2% | 0.6% | 2.2 million | $11,100 |
| 46 | Brazil | 4.1% | 1.9% | 0.2% | 3 million | $5,790 |
| 47 | Argentina | 4.4% | 1.9% | 0.3% | 620,000 | $10,500 |
| 48 | Bulgaria | 5.2% | 1.7% | 0.4% | 95,000 | $11,800 |
| 49 | Peru | 3.3% | 1.6% | 0.2% | 360,000 | $5,430 |
| 50 | South Africa | 4% | 1.3% | 0.2% | 530,000 | $2,210 |
| 51 | Slovakia | 9.3% | 1% | 0.2% | 45,000 | $25,800 |
| 52 | Colombia | 3.5% | 1% | 0.07% | 390,000 | $3,330 |
| 53 | China | 4% | 0.8% | 0.1% | 9.2 million | $9,720 |
| 54 | Malaysia | 2.8% | 0.7% | 0.2% | 170,000 | $11,200 |
| 55 | Algeria | 1.5% | 0.7% | 0.1% | 200,000 | $4,890 |
| 56 | Thailand | 1.7% | 0.5% | 0.09% | 300,000 | $3,580 |
| 57 | Iran | 1.2% | 0.5% | 0.02% | 330,000 | $4,170 |
| 58 | Egypt | 0.9% | 0.3% | 0.04% | 180,000 | $2,910 |
| 59 | Indonesia | 0.8% | 0.3% | 0.05% | 500,000 | $2,930 |
| 60 | Ghana | 1.1% | 0.2% | 0.03% | 43,000 | $3,180 |
| 61 | Philippines | 0.7% | 0.2% | 0.04% | 160,000 | $3,040 |
| 62 | Vietnam | 0.7% | 0.2% | 0.03% | 140,000 | $3,220 |
| 63 | Morocco | 1% | 0.1% | 0.02% | 36,000 | $3,520 |
| 64 | India | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0.03% | 1.2 million | $1,480 |
| 65 | Cambodia | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0.03% | 14,000 | $2,180 |
| 66 | Bangladesh | 0.3% | 0.10% | 0.02% | 110,000 | $2,260 |
| 67 | Côte d’Ivoire | 0.6% | 0.09% | 0.01% | 15,000 | $3,190 |
| 68 | Pakistan | 0.2% | 0.08% | 0.01% | 110,000 | $1,790 |
| 69 | Uganda | 0.2% | 0.07% | 0.01% | 16,000 | $1,150 |
| 70 | Kenya | 0.3% | 0.05% | 0.01% | 17,000 | $2,040 |
| 71 | Senegal | 0.2% | 0.04% | 0.00% | 3,100 | $2,070 |
| 72 | Tanzania | 0.1% | 0.03% | 0.00% | 11,000 | $1,030 |
| 73 | Rwanda | 0.1% | 0.03% | 0.00% | 1,800 | $918 |
| 74 | Nepal | 0.10% | 0.02% | 0.00% | 4,100 | $1,400 |
| 75 | Nigeria | 0.06% | 0.01% | 0.00% | 13,000 | $1,330 |
| 76 | Niger | 0.03% | 0.01% | 0.00% | 680 | $884 |
| 77 | Ethiopia | 0.01% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 1,200 | $1,040 |
| World | 7.9% | 2.9% | 0.5% | 160 million | $4,190 |
Click a column to sort. US dollars at ECB rates of 2026-10-09; per adult (20+).
“Median income” is what the typical adult in each country earns (median income by country). The table uses the broad pre-tax income measure of the World Inequality Database: wages, business income, pensions and capital income per adult, converted to US dollars at ECB exchange rates of 2026-10-09. How much of it you keep depends on where you live: see the lowest-tax countries.
Why the US figure depends on the source
Ask how many Americans earn over $100,000 and different sources give very different answers. They can all be correct, because they measure different things:
- Per household or per person? A household with two earners on $60,000 each has $120,000. Census reports that the median US household had $87,460 in 2025. Because many households have two earners, the share of households above $100,000 is much higher than the share of individual adults.
- Which income? Official US statistics count money income: wages, business income, pensions, interest, dividends and benefits. The international measure used in the table is broader and also includes employer pension contributions, retained company profits and imputed rent, so it puts more people over the line.
- Which adults? Shares of full-time workers are much higher than shares of all adults.
On the official Census basis for individuals, an income of $100,000 puts you in the top 18% of American adults; on the broad international measure it is the top 26%. Why the two differ.
How rare is $100,000 in the world?
| Pre-tax income per adult | In the world | In the United States | In the United Kingdom |
|---|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | top 7.9% | bottom 47% | top 49% |
| $100,000 | top 2.9% | top 26% | top 14% |
| $250,000 | top 0.5% | top 5.2% | top 2.1% |
| $500,000 | top 0.1% | top 1.5% | top 0.6% |
| $1 million | top 0.05% | top 0.5% | top 0.2% |
A $100,000 income is comfortable but not rare in the US. In the world as a whole it puts you in the top 2.9%: only about 160 million of the world’s 5.54 billion adults earn more.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of Americans make over $100k?
About 26% of American adults on the broad pre-tax measure. Counting households rather than individuals, the share is higher, because many households have two earners.
Is $100,000 a good salary?
In the US it puts you in the top 18% of adults on official statistics: clearly above the middle, but not rich. See is $100,000 a good income in the US? and the same amount in the UK.
What income is top 10% in the world?
About $40,800 a year before tax. The world’s top 1% starts at $179,000 (the global top 1%).
Where does my income rank?
Enter it in the calculator to see your rank in your country and in the world. The calculation runs in your browser and the amount is never sent anywhere.