Income percentiles in South Korea
Where each yearly income band starts in South Korea, in KRW, and what a reading there measures.
Reference data version 2026.4, reference year 2024.
Three cut-offs
- Bottom tenth
- under ₩18,100,000 a year
- Top tenth
- from ₩82,800,000 a year
- Top hundredth
- from ₩163,200,000 a year
The middle of the distribution, the 40th to 55th percentile, is ₩34,400,000 – ₩42,900,000 a year.
Every band
The 11 bands the income question offers in South Korea, verbatim, lowest first.
| Band | Yearly income |
|---|---|
| Below the 10th percentile | under ₩18,100,000 |
| 10th to 25th percentile | ₩18,100,000 – ₩26,800,000 |
| 25th to 40th percentile | ₩26,800,000 – ₩34,400,000 |
| 40th to 55th percentile | ₩34,400,000 – ₩42,900,000 |
| 55th to 70th percentile | ₩42,900,000 – ₩54,100,000 |
| 70th to 80th percentile | ₩54,100,000 – ₩64,700,000 |
| 80th to 90th percentile | ₩64,700,000 – ₩82,800,000 |
| 90th to 95th percentile | ₩82,800,000 – ₩103,200,000 |
| 95th to 98th percentile | ₩103,200,000 – ₩134,900,000 |
| 98th to 99th percentile | ₩134,900,000 – ₩163,200,000 |
| Top 1% | ₩163,200,000 or more |
Per earner. The source publishes household income divided by everyone in the household; the labels multiply it by 1.78, the people one worker's income stands for in South Korea, so a person can place their own income.
What the data rests on
- Confidence
- Medium
- Years covered
- 1981 to 2024
- Survey-based years
- 25% of covered years
- Nearest survey
- 3 years from 2024
- Age bands
- 6 of 6 resolved by the OECD
- Measured on
- income
- Currency
- KRW (₩)
Why: the span is short of the longest horizon; 25% of covered years rest on a survey.
What a reading in South Korea 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 South Korea itself.
- Your ground: both incomes with consumer prices in South Korea taken out, against how the middle of the distribution moved over the same year.
- Nothing is compared across borders. A reading in South Korea is measured against South Korea 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.