Income in Switzerland
The median income in Switzerland is about $65 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars) — richer than 94% of everyone alive. Half of Switzerland lives on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the bottom 1% of Switzerland.
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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 CHF, at each point on the curve of Switzerland (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of Switzerland | CHF 15,043 | $31 |
| 25% of Switzerland | CHF 21,659 | $45 |
| 50% of Switzerland | CHF 31,414 | $65 |
| 75% of Switzerland | CHF 45,732 | $95 |
| 90% of Switzerland | CHF 64,952 | $135 |
| 99% of Switzerland | CHF 181,577 | $376 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in Switzerland
How much of Switzerland 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 | Switzerland | 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 | 12% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | 88% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a daySwitzerland <1% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a daySwitzerland <1% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a daySwitzerland 12% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a daySwitzerland 88% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 88% of Switzerland lives on Level 4, $33 a day or more per person; worldwide, roughly one in seven people do.
The line that moved
Fewer than 1% of Switzerland lived under the $3.00 line at every survey since 1992 — this is a line that moved long before the data begins.
Share of Switzerland 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 Switzerland
8 portraits, not payroll data: each stands roughly where that kind of work typically earns on the curve of Switzerland.
| the lowest 10% | the earnings of a hotel housekeeper in the Alps — checkout at eleven, thirty rooms by three |
|---|---|
| 10–25% | the earnings of a retail worker in Geneva |
| 25–45% | the earnings of a bus driver — and glad of the pension |
| 45–65% | the earnings of a laboratory technician in Basel |
| 65–82% | the earnings of a polymechanic — precision is a national language |
| 82–93% | the earnings of a secondary-school teacher — with a salary to match the respect |
| 93–98% | the earnings of a pharma project lead |
| the highest 2% | the earnings of a private banker in Zurich |
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Where this comes from
The World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform percentile distribution for Switzerland (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 Switzerland's — and a few far from it, for scale.