Lane Kenworthy, The Good Society
January 2015
MIDDLE-CLASS INCOMES IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
Figure A1 shows household incomes at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles. The incomes include government transfers and subtract taxes.

Figure A1. Middle-class household income
Top lines: 75th percentile. Middle lines: 50th percentile. Bottom lines: 25th percentile. Thick lines: Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) data. Thin lines: OECD data. Posttransfer-posttax household income. The incomes are adjusted for household size and then rescaled to reflect a three-person household, adjusted for inflation, and converted to US dollars using purchasing power parities. “k” = thousand.
SHARED PROSPERITY IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
How much economic growth reaches the middle class? Figure A2 shows median household income by GDP per capita from 1979 to 2013.

Figure A2. Median household income by GDP per capita
The data points are years. 1979-2013. The lines are linear regression lines. Household incomes are posttransfer-posttax, adjusted for household size and then rescaled to reflect a three-person household. Household incomes and GDP per capita are adjusted for inflation and converted to US dollars using purchasing power parities. “k” = thousand. Data sources: OECD; Luxembourg Income Study.