# How rich am I compared to the rest of the world? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 30, 2003, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-rich-am-i-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world/191945 "2003-07-30T18:08:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gorillaboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dc4da7/32.png) [@gorillaboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gorillaboy)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-rich-am-i-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world/191945/1 "2003-07-30T18:08:10Z")
Just how rich am I? While it’s relatively easy to find out where I compare to US citizens, I was curious how my level of income compares to the world as a whole. For the record: I’m single, and make about $50,000 a year. The specific number I’m looking for is the percentage of people below and above my income worldwide. ---
**Author:** ![Brad\_Amundsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dbc845/32.png) [@Brad\_Amundsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brad_Amundsen)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-rich-am-i-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world/191945/2 "2003-07-30T18:35:29Z")
Here is a site that will calculate where you stand in comparrison to the world. [http://www.rprogress.org/java/Footpdist/Footpdist.html](http://www.rprogress.org/java/Footpdist/Footpdist.html) ---
**Author:** ![Brad\_Amundsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dbc845/32.png) [@Brad\_Amundsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brad_Amundsen)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-rich-am-i-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world/191945/3 "2003-07-30T18:43:52Z")
Quoted from above site^^^ ‘‘98.5% of the worlds population earn less than $50,000 per year,and their total share of the worlds income is less than79.2%.The other 1.5% receives 20.8% of the world’s income.’’ ---
**Author:** ![Brad\_Amundsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dbc845/32.png) [@Brad\_Amundsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brad_Amundsen)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-rich-am-i-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world/191945/4 "2003-07-30T18:47:41Z")
Simple answer :“your freekin’ rich!!!” ---
**Author:** ![gorillaboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dc4da7/32.png) [@gorillaboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gorillaboy)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-rich-am-i-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world/191945/5 "2003-07-30T19:08:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Brad Amundsen \* > \*\*Simple answer :“your freekin’ rich!!!” \*\* Thanks for the info! Still…only 98.5%… It’s not enough! A quick bit of calculation shows that if I can just double my income, I’ll be on top of 99.9% of the world’s population! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![LordVor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90ced4/32.png) [@LordVor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LordVor)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-rich-am-i-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world/191945/6 "2003-07-30T21:20:21Z")
Well, according to that site I earn more than 100% of the people in the world do. Apparently, Bill Gates lives on the moon. -lv ---
**Author:** ![gorillaboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dc4da7/32.png) [@gorillaboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gorillaboy)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-rich-am-i-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world/191945/7 "2003-07-30T21:26:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LordVor \* > \*\*Well, according to that site I earn more than 100% of the people in the world do. Apparently, Bill Gates lives on the moon. > > -lv \*\* It’s not as if he couldn’t _afford_ to… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-rich-am-i-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world/191945/8 "2003-07-30T22:21:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gorillaboy \* > **Just how rich am I?** For most of the world, you are rich beyond the dreams of avarice. You earn more in a year than many individuals will in their entire lives. ---
**Author:** ![gorillaboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dc4da7/32.png) [@gorillaboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gorillaboy)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-rich-am-i-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world/191945/9 "2003-07-30T22:35:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Colibri \* > \*\*For most of the world, you are rich beyond the dreams of avarice. You earn more in a year than many individuals will in their entire lives. \*\* I pretty much knew that already. I was just curious as to exactly **how** much richer I was. I would have guessed that I was richer than 95% of the world; the 98.5% figure suprised me a bit, until I considered the level of poverty (and population) in Africa and much of Asia. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-rich-am-i-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world/191945/10 "2003-07-30T23:05:09Z")
Look at the “other end”: > [@](#): > > 50.0% of the world population earns less than $675.0 per year, > and their total share of the world’s income is less than 3.4%. > The other 50.0% receives 96.6% of the world’s income. ---
**Author:** ![Winsling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Winsling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winsling)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-rich-am-i-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world/191945/11 "2003-07-31T00:20:11Z")
Is there an anologous site for wealth? ---
**Author:** ![Truth\_Seeker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@Truth\_Seeker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truth_Seeker)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-rich-am-i-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world/191945/12 "2003-07-31T00:35:47Z")
**Nametag** It probably makes more sense to look at Purchasing Power Parity. (PPP) This give a median income of about 2500 USD/yr. To put this in perspective, in the U.S. the “poverty level” for a family of four is about 18,000 USD/yr. So the median world income is equivalent to about 55% of the U.S. poverty level. To put it yet _another_ way, living on the median world income would be very roughly like a single parent supporting three children on a minimum wage job. These numbers are deceptive because they underestimate the “background” wealth in the developed world, especially in the U.S. There are a great deal of services, amenities and resources freely or cheaply available to all that dramatically improve the quality of life in the developed world, e.g., reliable water supplies and electricity, freeways, libraries, health care infrastructure, efficient distribution systems in the forms of supermarkets, etc., etc. Homeless people in North America are probably “wealthier” than a great many people in developing countries. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-rich-am-i-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world/191945/13 "2003-07-31T04:19:29Z")
This java thing is cool, but unfortunately it’s ridiculously inaccurate, to 1 out of one thousand. It doesn’t take much income to be at 100.0%. Anyone know where the figures behind the applet came from, or where else the raw numbers can be gotten? Thanks.