Income in the Philippines
The median income in the Philippines is about $5.28 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars) — richer than 34% of everyone alive. Half of the Philippines lives on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the top 27% of the Philippines.
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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 PHP, at each point on the curve of the Philippines (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of the Philippines | ₱23,931 | $2.69 |
| 25% of the Philippines | ₱32,620 | $3.66 |
| 50% of the Philippines | ₱47,059 | $5.28 |
| 75% of the Philippines | ₱70,588 | $7.92 |
| 90% of the Philippines | ₱107,398 | $12 |
| 99% of the Philippines | ₱301,249 | $34 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in the Philippines
How much of the Philippines 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 | Philippines | World |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | under $3.00 | a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot | 14% | 13% |
| Level 2 | $3.00–$8.30 | a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance | 63% | 39% |
| Level 3 | $8.30–$33 | a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account | 22% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | 1% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a dayPhilippines 14% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a dayPhilippines 63% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a dayPhilippines 22% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a dayPhilippines 1% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 63% of the Philippines 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 the Philippines, 41% lived under the $3.00 line at the 1991 survey; 12% at the 2023 one — a fall of 29 points in 32 years.
Share of the Philippines 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 the Philippines
8 portraits, not payroll data: each stands roughly where that kind of work typically earns on the curve of the Philippines.
| the lowest 10% | the earnings of a rice farmer in the provinces |
|---|---|
| 10–25% | the earnings of a sari-sari store keeper — the village economy in one window |
| 25–45% | the earnings of a jeepney driver — chrome, colour, and courage |
| 45–65% | the earnings of a call-centre agent in Manila — awake when America is |
| 65–82% | the earnings of a nurse — the profession the world keeps borrowing |
| 82–93% | the earnings of a merchant-marine officer — the world’s fleets run on Filipino officers |
| 93–98% | the earnings of a doctor in Makati |
| the highest 2% | the earnings of a shipping-line owner — seven thousand islands need ferries |
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Where this comes from
The World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform percentile distribution for the Philippines (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 the Philippines's — and a few far from it, for scale.