Income in Ghana
The median income in Ghana is about $3.74 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars) — richer than 19% of everyone alive. Half of Ghana lives on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the top 17% of Ghana.
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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 GHS, at each point on the curve of Ghana (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of Ghana | GHS 2,859 | $1.25 |
| 25% of Ghana | GHS 4,875 | $2.14 |
| 50% of Ghana | GHS 8,520 | $3.74 |
| 75% of Ghana | GHS 14,374 | $6.31 |
| 90% of Ghana | GHS 22,882 | $10 |
| 99% of Ghana | GHS 67,542 | $30 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in Ghana
How much of Ghana 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 | Ghana | World |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | under $3.00 | a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot | 39% | 13% |
| Level 2 | $3.00–$8.30 | a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance | 46% | 39% |
| Level 3 | $8.30–$33 | a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account | 14% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | 1% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a dayGhana 39% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a dayGhana 46% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a dayGhana 14% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a dayGhana 1% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 46% of Ghana lives on Level 2, between $3.00 and $8.30 a day per person; worldwide, about 39% of people do.
The line that moved
In Ghana, 80% lived under the $3.00 line at the 1991 survey; 39% at the 2016 one — a fall of 41 points in 25 years.
Share of Ghana 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 Ghana
8 portraits, not payroll data: each stands roughly where that kind of work typically earns on the curve of Ghana.
| the lowest 10% | the earnings of a cocoa smallholder — the chocolate world starts here |
|---|---|
| 10–25% | the earnings of a market trader in Kumasi |
| 25–45% | the earnings of a trotro driver in Accra |
| 45–65% | the earnings of a tailor — kente and wax prints, made to measure |
| 65–82% | the earnings of a schoolteacher |
| 82–93% | the earnings of a bank officer in Accra |
| 93–98% | the earnings of a mining engineer |
| the highest 2% | the earnings of a construction-firm owner |
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Where this comes from
The World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform percentile distribution for Ghana (survey year 2016), 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 Ghana's — and a few far from it, for scale.