Income in Sri Lanka
The median income in Sri Lanka is about $6.92 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars) — richer than 45% of everyone alive. Half of Sri Lanka lives on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the top 43% of Sri Lanka.
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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 LKR, at each point on the curve of Sri Lanka (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of Sri Lanka | LKR 123,782 | $3.51 |
| 25% of Sri Lanka | LKR 167,801 | $4.77 |
| 50% of Sri Lanka | LKR 243,513 | $6.92 |
| 75% of Sri Lanka | LKR 369,760 | $11 |
| 90% of Sri Lanka | LKR 579,290 | $16 |
| 99% of Sri Lanka | LKR 1,931,555 | $55 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in Sri Lanka
How much of Sri Lanka 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 | Sri Lanka | World |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | under $3.00 | a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot | 5% | 13% |
| Level 2 | $3.00–$8.30 | a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance | 57% | 39% |
| Level 3 | $8.30–$33 | a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account | 36% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | 2% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a daySri Lanka 5% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a daySri Lanka 57% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a daySri Lanka 36% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a daySri Lanka 2% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 57% of Sri Lanka 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 Sri Lanka, 23% lived under the $3.00 line at the 1990 survey; 2.7% at the 2019 one — a fall of 20 points in 29 years.
Share of Sri Lanka 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.
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Where this comes from
The World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform percentile distribution for Sri Lanka (survey year 2019), 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 Sri Lanka's — and a few far from it, for scale.