Income in Argentina
The median income in Argentina is about $18 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars) — richer than 73% of everyone alive. Half of Argentina lives on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the bottom 16% of Argentina.
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The curve
Daily income per person, log scale, PPP dollars — the same curve the machine walks you across.
What it takes to stand where
Take-home income per person, in today's ARS, at each point on the curve of Argentina (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of Argentina | ARS 115,373 | $6.35 |
| 25% of Argentina | ARS 184,415 | $10 |
| 50% of Argentina | ARS 318,866 | $18 |
| 75% of Argentina | ARS 540,528 | $30 |
| 90% of Argentina | ARS 864,844 | $48 |
| 99% of Argentina | ARS 2,200,265 | $121 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in Argentina
How much of Argentina and of the world lives on each of four income levels. The cuts are the World Bank's $3.00 (international poverty line) and $8.30 (upper-middle-income line), both 2021 PPP; the top cut, $33, is the machine's own, four times the $8.30 line. The objects are what an income on each level tends to buy across the world's surveys — not a description of any one country.
| Level | per day (PPP $) | What tends to come with it, worldwide | Argentina | World |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | under $3.00 | a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot | 1% | 13% |
| Level 2 | $3.00–$8.30 | a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance | 17% | 39% |
| Level 3 | $8.30–$33 | a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account | 61% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | 21% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a dayArgentina 1% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a dayArgentina 17% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a dayArgentina 61% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a dayArgentina 21% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 61% of Argentina lives on Level 3, between $8.30 and $33 a day per person; worldwide, about 32% of people do.
The line that moved
This page cannot yet draw the line for Argentina on its own — the World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform has it, survey by survey — and where a country's line has not fallen, the world's has not fallen on its behalf.
Worldwide, the share under the World Bank's $3.00-a-day line fell from about 43% in 1990 to about 10% today (Our World in Data; the latest years are the Bank's nowcast). Where the lift came, it came the unglamorous way: wages, harvests, workshops.
Who earns what in Argentina
8 portraits, not payroll data: each stands roughly where that kind of work typically earns on the curve of Argentina.
| the lowest 10% | the earnings of an informal recycler in Buenos Aires — up before the rush hour |
|---|---|
| 10–25% | the earnings of a rural farmhand in the provinces |
| 25–45% | the earnings of a shop assistant on the avenida |
| 45–65% | the earnings of a secondary-school teacher — with strong opinions about Borges |
| 65–82% | the earnings of a psychologist — in the city with more therapists per head than anywhere |
| 82–93% | the earnings of an agronomist on the pampas |
| 93–98% | the earnings of a cardiologist |
| the highest 2% | the earnings of an estanciero — cattle to the horizon |
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Where this comes from
The World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform percentile distribution for Argentina (survey year 2024), in 2021 PPP dollars; incomes typed in today's money are deflated to 2021 prices with the national CPI and converted with the 2021 consumption-PPP factor. Snapshot fetched September 2026. Full methodology & honesty rules.
Neighbours on the curve
The countries whose median income sits nearest to Argentina's — and a few far from it, for scale.