Breaking Down the Middle Class

The share of each country’s total population has been divided into five income bands. These bands are defined by dollar-per-day spending amounts expressed in purchasing power parity terms. The middle-class is defined by persons spending between $10 and $50 per day.

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Key: Dollars-Per-Day
  • High > $50
  • Upper-Middle $20 - $50
  • Lower-Middle $10 - $20
  • Low $2 - $10
  • Poor < $2

Hover over a country to see a detailed breakdown of its dollars-per-day spending

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The World Bank defines $1.90 per day as the global poverty line. Pew Research Center adjusted this figure to $2 and added three additional income levels with data obtained from PovcalNet and the Luxembourg Income Study. The Pew Research Center bands and data have been used (with minor modifications) for this research.
CSIS China Power Project | Source: Pew Research Center