Income percentiles in Kenya
Where each yearly income band starts in Kenya, in KES, and what a reading there measures.
Reference data version 2026.4, reference year 2024.
Three cut-offs
- Bottom tenth
- under KSh 79,000 a year
- Top tenth
- from KSh 400,000 a year
- Top hundredth
- from KSh 1,000,000 a year
The middle of the distribution, the 40th to 55th percentile, is KSh 130,000 – KSh 170,000 a year.
Every band
The 11 bands the income question offers in Kenya, verbatim, lowest first.
| Band | Yearly income |
|---|---|
| Below the 10th percentile | under KSh 79,000 |
| 10th to 25th percentile | KSh 79,000 – KSh 110,000 |
| 25th to 40th percentile | KSh 110,000 – KSh 130,000 |
| 40th to 55th percentile | KSh 130,000 – KSh 170,000 |
| 55th to 70th percentile | KSh 170,000 – KSh 220,000 |
| 70th to 80th percentile | KSh 220,000 – KSh 280,000 |
| 80th to 90th percentile | KSh 280,000 – KSh 400,000 |
| 90th to 95th percentile | KSh 400,000 – KSh 560,000 |
| 95th to 98th percentile | KSh 560,000 – KSh 770,000 |
| 98th to 99th percentile | KSh 770,000 – KSh 1,000,000 |
| Top 1% | KSh 1,000,000 or more |
Per earner. The source publishes household consumption divided by everyone in the household; the labels multiply it by 2.48, the people one worker's income stands for in Kenya, so a person can place their own income.
In Kenya the distribution is measured on consumption, not income. The two are not interchangeable, and the multiplier does not turn one into the other.
What the data rests on
- Confidence
- Low
- Years covered
- 1981 to 2024
- Survey-based years
- 11% of covered years
- Nearest survey
- 2 years from 2024
- Age bands
- none published; the all-ages row answers
- Measured on
- consumption
- Currency
- KES (KSh)
Why: only 11% of covered years rest on a survey estimate.
What a reading in Kenya 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 Kenya itself.
- Your ground: both incomes with consumer prices in Kenya taken out, against how the middle of the distribution moved over the same year.
- Nothing is compared across borders. A reading in Kenya is measured against Kenya 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.