Income in Italy
The median income in Italy is about $43 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars) — richer than 88% of everyone alive. Half of Italy lives on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the bottom 3% of Italy.
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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 EUR, at each point on the curve of Italy (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of Italy | €5,359 | $18 |
| 25% of Italy | €8,384 | $28 |
| 50% of Italy | €12,755 | $43 |
| 75% of Italy | €18,683 | $62 |
| 90% of Italy | €26,243 | $88 |
| 99% of Italy | €64,523 | $216 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in Italy
How much of Italy 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 | Italy | 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 | 1% | 39% |
| Level 3 | $8.30–$33 | a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account | 32% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | 66% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a dayItaly 1% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a dayItaly 1% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a dayItaly 32% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a dayItaly 66% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 66% of Italy lives on Level 4, $33 a day or more per person; worldwide, roughly one in seven people do.
The line that moved
In Italy, under 1% lived under the $3.00 line at the 1991 survey and under 1% at the 2023 one — it has barely moved.
Share of Italy 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 Italy
8 portraits, not payroll data: each stands roughly where that kind of work typically earns on the curve of Italy.
| the lowest 10% | the earnings of a farm labourer in the Mezzogiorno |
|---|---|
| 10–25% | the earnings of a barista — the machine never cools between seven and nine |
| 25–45% | the earnings of a shop assistant in Turin |
| 45–65% | the earnings of a carabiniere |
| 65–82% | the earnings of an accountant in Bologna |
| 82–93% | the earnings of an architect in Milan — everything is a design decision |
| 93–98% | the earnings of a primario — head of the hospital ward |
| the highest 2% | the earnings of a fashion-house executive |
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Where this comes from
The World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform percentile distribution for Italy (survey year 2023), 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 Italy's — and a few far from it, for scale.