Income percentiles in Germany
Where each yearly income band starts in Germany, in EUR, and what a reading there measures.
Take a reading in Germany
Reference data version 2026.4, reference year 2024.
Three cut-offs
- Bottom tenth
- under €17,000 a year
- Top tenth
- from €78,000 a year
- Top hundredth
- from €170,000 a year
The middle of the distribution, the 40th to 55th percentile, is €34,000 – €42,000 a year.
Every band
The 11 bands the income question offers in Germany, verbatim, lowest first.
| Band | Yearly income |
|---|---|
| Below the 10th percentile | under €17,000 |
| 10th to 25th percentile | €17,000 – €27,000 |
| 25th to 40th percentile | €27,000 – €34,000 |
| 40th to 55th percentile | €34,000 – €42,000 |
| 55th to 70th percentile | €42,000 – €51,000 |
| 70th to 80th percentile | €51,000 – €60,000 |
| 80th to 90th percentile | €60,000 – €78,000 |
| 90th to 95th percentile | €78,000 – €96,000 |
| 95th to 98th percentile | €96,000 – €130,000 |
| 98th to 99th percentile | €130,000 – €170,000 |
| Top 1% | €170,000 or more |
Per earner. The source publishes household income divided by everyone in the household; the labels multiply it by 1.97, the people one worker's income stands for in Germany, so a person can place their own income.
What the data rests on
- Confidence
- Medium
- Years covered
- 1981 to 2024
- Survey-based years
- 73% of covered years
- Nearest survey
- 2 years from 2024
- Age bands
- 6 of 6 resolved by the OECD
- Measured on
- income
- Currency
- EUR (€)
Why: the span is short of the longest horizon.
What a reading in Germany measures
- Your place: which of the bands above your income is in now, against the band it was in a year ago, read as a position in the income distribution of Germany itself.
- Your ground: both incomes with consumer prices in Germany taken out, against how the middle of the distribution moved over the same year.
- Nothing is compared across borders. A reading in Germany is measured against Germany alone.
A band is a range, so a move inside one band does not register, and published distributions understate the very top. The confidence level above travels onto every card measured here.