Per capita income

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The per capita income for a group of people may be defined as their total personal income, divided by the total population. Per capita income is usually reported in units of currency per year.

1 Per capita income as a measure of wealth
2 Some national per capita income levels
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Per capita income as a measure of wealth

Per capita income is often used as a measure of the wealth of the population of a nation, particularly in comparison to other nations. It is usually expressed in terms of a commonly-used international currency such as the Euro or United States dollar, and is useful because it is widely known and produces a straightforward statistic for comparison.

Particularly when comparing countries with substantially different levels of wealth, however, it has several weaknesses as a measurement.

Economic activity that does not result in monetary income, such as services provided within the family, or for barter, are usually not counted. The importance of these services will vary widely between different economies, both between countries and among different groups within a country. See: Informal economy

Per capita income gives no indication of the distribution of that income within the country, so a small wealthy class can increase the measured per-capita income far above that of the majority of the population. See: Income inequality metrics

Differing currency exchange rates between countries mean that a given amount of money (for example, one US dollar) has differing values in different places. See: Purchasing power

[edit] Some national per capita income levels

Data on per capita income based on a country's total personal income are rarely available. The Gross domestic product (GDP) is more commonly used, however, the total personal income is generally lower than the gross domestic income.

A list of the top ten countries, and the lowest-ranking country, by GDP per capita (in terms of PPP and nominal values) for the year 2005:

Nominal per capita			PPP per capita
1.	Luxembourg	80,288	Luxembourg	69,800
2.	Norway	64,193	Norway	42,364
3.	Iceland	52,764	United States	41,399
4.	Switzerland	50,532	Ireland	40,610
5.	Ireland	48,604	Iceland	35,115
6.	Denmark	47,984	Denmark	34,740
7.	Qatar	43,110	Canada	34,273
8.	United States	42,000	Hong Kong, SAR	33,479
9.	Sweden	39,694	Austria	33,432
10.	Netherlands	38,618	Switzerland	32,571
179	Malawi	161	Malawi	596