Income in Turkmenistan
The median income in Turkmenistan was about $2.41 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars), at that survey — richer than 9% of everyone alive. Half of Turkmenistan lived on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the top 7% of Turkmenistan.
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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 TMT at 2021 prices (the 1998 survey, carried forward), at each point on the curve of Turkmenistan (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of Turkmenistan | TMT 701 | $1.06 |
| 25% of Turkmenistan | TMT 1,037 | $1.56 |
| 50% of Turkmenistan | TMT 1,598 | $2.41 |
| 75% of Turkmenistan | TMT 2,658 | $4.00 |
| 90% of Turkmenistan | TMT 4,263 | $6.42 |
| 99% of Turkmenistan | TMT 12,792 | $19 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in Turkmenistan
How much of Turkmenistan and of the world lived 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 | Turkmenistan | World |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | under $3.00 | a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot | 62% | 13% |
| Level 2 | $3.00–$8.30 | a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance | 32% | 39% |
| Level 3 | $8.30–$33 | a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account | 6% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | <1% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a dayTurkmenistan 62% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a dayTurkmenistan 32% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a dayTurkmenistan 6% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a dayTurkmenistan <1% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 62% of Turkmenistan lived on Level 1, under $3.00 a day per person; worldwide, roughly one in seven people do.
The line that moved
This page cannot yet draw the line for Turkmenistan on its own — the World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform has it, survey by survey — and where a country's line has not fallen, the world's has not fallen on its behalf.
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 Turkmenistan (survey year 1998), 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 Turkmenistan's — and a few far from it, for scale.