This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Per capita income is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
 |
To comply with Wikipedia's quality standards, this article may need to be rewritten. Please help improve this article. The discussion page may contain suggestions. |
Per capita income means how much each individual receives, in monetary terms, of the yearly income generated in the country. This is what each citizen is to receive if the yearly national income is divided equally among everyone. Per capita income is usually reported in units of currency per year. When comparing nations per capita income reflects gross national product per capita income, but it is also used to compare municipalities within nations. When determining the per capita income of a community, the total personal income is divided by the population.
Per capita income as a measure of wealth
Per capita income is often used as a measure of the wealth of the population of a nation, particularly in comparison to other nations. It is usually expressed in terms of a commonly-used international currency such as the euro or United States dollar, and is useful because it is widely known and produces a straightforward statistic for comparison. It is the average income a person in the country is earning.
Particularly when comparing countries with substantially different levels of wealth, however, it has several weaknesses as a measurement.
Economic activity that does not result in monetary income, such as services provided within the family, or for barter, are usually not counted. The importance of these services will vary widely between different economies, both between countries and among different groups within a country. Per capita income gives no indication of the distribution of that income within the country, so a small wealthy class can increase the measured per-capita income far above that of the majority of the population. As for the per capita income of the majority of the population, using the median income or Amartya Sen's welfare function is the more appropriate approach.
Differing currency exchange rates between countries mean that a given amount of money (for example, one US dollar) has differing values in different places.
See also
- Total personal income
- List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita - GDP at market or government official exchange rates per inhabitant
- List of countries by GDP (nominal) - GDP with currencies converted at market exchange rates
- List of countries by GDP (PPP) - GDP calculated at purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange
- List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita
- List of countries by GNI per capita
- Lending
- Purchasing power parity
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008) |
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 9 October 2008, at 02:29.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Per capita income".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.