Average income by country· GNI per person
Add up everything a nation earns in a year, divide it across every resident, and you get the number this page ranks. For the world as a whole, average income comes to about $14,244 per person in 2025. The spread is enormous: Switzerland leads at $110,330 per person, followed by Norway ($97,310) and Luxembourg ($95,720), while Burundi closes the list of 182 countries and territories at $240. All figures are gross national income per capita, World Bank Atlas method, in current US dollars.
One honest warning before the map: this is not the average salary, and not the median paycheck. GNI per capita takes everything a country's residents earn, wages, profits, rents and money sent home from abroad, and divides it across every man, woman, child and retiree. It compares countries in plain US dollars, smoothed over three years by the Atlas method, with no adjustment for local prices: a dollar stretches much further in Burundi than in Switzerland, and inside every country the typical income sits below this average.
Where incomes are high, and where they are not
The deep color marks the countries where income per person is highest: Western and Northern Europe, North America, the Gulf, and parts of East Asia. Wide stretches of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia stay pale. The map and the ranked list beside it move together; switch the metric above to see each country as a multiple of the world average, or by its change against last year.
Tap a country to read its figure.
Natural Earth 10m · Crimea shown as Ukraine · source: World Bank, CC BY 4.0
Every country, ranked by income per person
The complete table, highest income first. Click a column to sort. The main number is GNI per capita in current US dollars; the multiple shows how a country compares with the world average, and the change column tracks its move against the previous year.
| # ▲ | Country | Income per person | × world | Δ year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Switzerland | $110,330 | 7.75× | ↑ 10.42% |
| 2 |  Norway | $97,310 | 6.83× | ↓ 2.72% |
| 3 |  Luxembourg | $95,720 | 6.72× | ↑ 13.08% |
| 4 |  Iceland | $89,220 | 6.26× | ↑ 10.27% |
| 5 |  United States | $88,810 | 6.24× | ↑ 7.12% |
| 6 |  Ireland | $87,360 | 6.13× | ↑ 8.32% |
| 7 |  Singapore | $81,760 | 5.74× | ↑ 7.83% |
| 8 |  Denmark | $77,190 | 5.42× | ↑ 6.41% |
| 9 |  Qatar | $74,330 | 5.22× | ↓ 2.93% |
| 10 |  Netherlands | $68,530 | 4.81× | ↑ 9.65% |
| 11 |  Australia | $64,120 | 4.50× | ↑ 2.30% |
| 12 |  Sweden | $63,010 | 4.42× | ↑ 7.69% |
| 13 |  Hong Kong | $62,500 | 4.39× | ↑ 8.87% |
| 14 |  Austria | $60,360 | 4.24× | ↑ 10.23% |
| 15 |  Germany | $60,200 | 4.23× | ↑ 9.28% |
What "average income" really measures here
The measure behind this ranking is gross national income per capita, converted with the World Bank's Atlas method. GNI starts with everything produced inside a country, then adds what its residents earn abroad, worker remittances included, and subtracts the income that flows out to foreign owners. Divide that total by the entire population and you get the number on this page: an average across every resident, from surgeons to newborns. The Atlas method turns it into US dollars using a three year average of exchange rates, so a single currency swing does not shuffle the whole table.
Two things stand out at once. The gap is vast: Switzerland, at $110,330 per person, earns about 460 times as much as Burundi at $240, and 14 countries still sit below $1,000 per person per year. And the world average of $14,244 is richer than what most countries actually see: the median country sits near $7,530, and only 61 of 182 countries clear the world figure at all. A small group of high income economies pulls the mean up.
Read the dollar figures with care. They compare incomes at market linked exchange rates, not at local prices, so they understate the real standard of living in cheaper countries: a dollar goes much further in Burundi than in Switzerland. Purchasing power comparisons narrow the gap considerably, though they do not close it. And within each country, the average hides the spread between rich and poor; the median resident of nearly every country earns less than the national mean. This page ranks one clean, comparable measure, and it should be read as exactly that.
Five numbers worth remembering
The same dataset, squeezed into the facts people actually retell.
Where does a country stand?
An average lands harder when it belongs to a place you know.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average income in the world?
Measured as gross national income per person, the world average is about $14,244 per year for 2025, across 182 countries and territories in World Bank data. That figure is the planet's income divided by the planet's population, children and retirees included. Most countries sit below it: the median country is near $7,530, because a group of high income economies pulls the mean upward.
Which country has the highest average income?
Switzerland, at about $110,330 of gross national income per person for 2025. Norway ($97,310) and Luxembourg ($95,720) follow. The United States leads among large economies at about $88,810, rank 5 of 182. At the other end of the list, Burundi records about $240 per person.
Is this the average salary in each country?
No. GNI per capita is a country's entire income, wages, company profits, rents and net earnings from abroad, divided across every resident, including children and retirees who earn nothing. A salary average would count only workers and only wages, and the median wage sits lower still. Treat these figures as national prosperity per head, not as what a typical paycheck looks like.
What is the difference between GNI per capita and GDP per capita?
GDP counts what is produced inside a country's borders; GNI counts what its residents actually receive, adding income earned abroad, remittances included, and subtracting the profits that leave to foreign owners. For a question about income, GNI is the more honest lens, which is why this page uses it. Our richest countries and poorest countries rankings use GDP per capita, the production lens, so a country's position can differ slightly between the pages.
Why are these figures not adjusted for purchasing power?
This ranking compares plain US dollars, converted with the World Bank's Atlas method, which smooths exchange rates over three years. That keeps the measure transparent: it shows what a country's income is worth on world markets. The honest cost is that a dollar buys more where prices are low, so a PPP adjusted comparison would lift poorer countries and narrow the spread. Both views are valid; this page shows the dollar view and says so.
How big is the gap between the highest and lowest average incomes?
About 460 to one: Switzerland's $110,330 per person against Burundi's $240 for 2025. 14 countries remain below $1,000 per person per year, while 21 sit above $50,000. In purchasing power terms the gap narrows, since prices are far lower in poor countries, but even then it spans well over an order of magnitude.
Cite this page
CC BY 4.0Our compilation on this page — the figures as arranged, ranked and dated here — is published under CC BY 4.0. Reuse it anywhere, including commercially, with a link back. The underlying data belongs to the organizations credited below.
Us, by Numbers. "Average Income by Country (GNI per Capita)." https://usbynumbers.com
Sources & further reading
Every figure here is built on one open dataset: the World Bank's GNI per capita, Atlas method, current US$ (NY.GNP.PCAP.CD), released under CC BY 4.0.
- World Bank: GNI per capita, Atlas method (current US$)primary dataset
- World Bank: what is the Atlas method?methodology
- World Bank: country classifications by income levelsecondary reading
- Our World in Data: economic growthsecondary reading