Income in Ethiopia
The median income in Ethiopia is about $2.74 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars) — richer than 11% of everyone alive. Half of Ethiopia lives on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the top 4% of Ethiopia.
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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 ETB, at each point on the curve of Ethiopia (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of Ethiopia | ETB 16,520 | $1.41 |
| 25% of Ethiopia | ETB 22,613 | $1.93 |
| 50% of Ethiopia | ETB 32,104 | $2.74 |
| 75% of Ethiopia | ETB 46,222 | $3.95 |
| 90% of Ethiopia | ETB 66,023 | $5.63 |
| 99% of Ethiopia | ETB 149,387 | $13 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in Ethiopia
How much of Ethiopia 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 | Ethiopia | World |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | under $3.00 | a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot | 57% | 13% |
| Level 2 | $3.00–$8.30 | a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance | 40% | 39% |
| Level 3 | $8.30–$33 | a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account | 3% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | <1% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a dayEthiopia 57% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a dayEthiopia 40% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a dayEthiopia 3% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a dayEthiopia <1% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 57% of Ethiopia lives on Level 1, under $3.00 a day per person; worldwide, roughly one in seven people do.
The line that moved
In Ethiopia, 74% lived under the $3.00 line at the 1995 survey; 39% at the 2021 one — a fall of 34 points in 26 years.
Share of Ethiopia 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.
Who earns what in Ethiopia
8 portraits, not payroll data: each stands roughly where that kind of work typically earns on the curve of Ethiopia.
| the lowest 10% | the earnings of a highland teff farmer — the grain behind every injera |
|---|---|
| 10–25% | the earnings of a coffee-washing-station worker — where coffee was born |
| 25–45% | the earnings of a minibus conductor in Addis — calling the route at full speed |
| 45–65% | the earnings of a construction worker in Addis Ababa — the capital grows a district a year |
| 65–82% | the earnings of a schoolteacher |
| 82–93% | the earnings of an airline technician — the flag carrier is the continent’s pride |
| 93–98% | the earnings of a doctor in Addis Ababa |
| the highest 2% | the earnings of an import-export magnate |
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Where this comes from
The World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform percentile distribution for Ethiopia (survey year 2021), 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 Ethiopia's — and a few far from it, for scale.