Income in Pakistan
The median income in Pakistan is about $3.96 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars) — richer than 22% of everyone alive. Half of Pakistan lives on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the top 13% of Pakistan.
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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 PKR, at each point on the curve of Pakistan (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of Pakistan | PKR 60,439 | $2.13 |
| 25% of Pakistan | PKR 80,444 | $2.83 |
| 50% of Pakistan | PKR 112,224 | $3.96 |
| 75% of Pakistan | PKR 162,591 | $5.73 |
| 90% of Pakistan | PKR 238,353 | $8.40 |
| 99% of Pakistan | PKR 730,664 | $26 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in Pakistan
How much of Pakistan 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 | Pakistan | World |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | under $3.00 | a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot | 29% | 13% |
| Level 2 | $3.00–$8.30 | a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance | 61% | 39% |
| Level 3 | $8.30–$33 | a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account | 9% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | 1% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a dayPakistan 29% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a dayPakistan 61% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a dayPakistan 9% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a dayPakistan 1% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 61% of Pakistan 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 Pakistan, 80% lived under the $3.00 line at the 1990 survey; 23% at the 2024 one — a fall of 56 points in 34 years.
Share of Pakistan 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 Pakistan
8 portraits, not payroll data: each stands roughly where that kind of work typically earns on the curve of Pakistan.
| the lowest 10% | the earnings of a farm labourer in Sindh |
|---|---|
| 10–25% | the earnings of a daily-wage construction worker — paid at sundown, back at dawn |
| 25–45% | the earnings of a rickshaw driver in Lahore |
| 45–65% | the earnings of a tailor in a bazaar — Eid season is a marathon |
| 65–82% | the earnings of a schoolteacher |
| 82–93% | the earnings of a civil servant |
| 93–98% | the earnings of a doctor in Karachi |
| the highest 2% | the earnings of a textile-mill owner — Faisalabad supplies the world’s wardrobes |
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Where this comes from
The World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform percentile distribution for Pakistan (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 Pakistan's — and a few far from it, for scale.