Income in Bhutan
The median income in Bhutan is about $14 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars) — richer than 68% of everyone alive. Half of Bhutan lives on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the bottom 12% of Bhutan.
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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 BTN, at each point on the curve of Bhutan (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of Bhutan | BTN 68,306 | $7.47 |
| 25% of Bhutan | BTN 92,749 | $10 |
| 50% of Bhutan | BTN 131,585 | $14 |
| 75% of Bhutan | BTN 181,387 | $20 |
| 90% of Bhutan | BTN 248,550 | $27 |
| 99% of Bhutan | BTN 524,057 | $57 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in Bhutan
How much of Bhutan 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 | Bhutan | 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 | 14% | 39% |
| Level 3 | $8.30–$33 | a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account | 81% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | 5% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a dayBhutan <1% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a dayBhutan 14% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a dayBhutan 81% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a dayBhutan 5% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 81% of Bhutan lives on Level 3, between $8.30 and $33 a day per person; worldwide, about 32% of people do.
The line that moved
In Bhutan, 23% lived under the $3.00 line at the 2003 survey; under 1% at the 2022 one — a fall of 23 points in 19 years.
Share of Bhutan under $3.00 a day (2021 prices) at each national survey, World Bank PIP via Our World in Data; the faint line is the world's.
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.
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Where this comes from
The World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform percentile distribution for Bhutan (survey year 2022), 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 Bhutan's — and a few far from it, for scale.