Income percentiles in Papua New Guinea
Where each yearly income band starts in Papua New Guinea, in PGK, and what a reading there measures.
Reference data version 2026.4, reference year 2024.
Three cut-offs
- Bottom tenth
- under PGK 3,900 a year
- Top tenth
- from PGK 29,000 a year
- Top hundredth
- from PGK 68,000 a year
The middle of the distribution, the 40th to 55th percentile, is PGK 9,400 – PGK 13,000 a year.
Every band
The 11 bands the income question offers in Papua New Guinea, verbatim, lowest first.
| Band | Yearly income |
|---|---|
| Below the 10th percentile | under PGK 3,900 |
| 10th to 25th percentile | PGK 3,900 – PGK 6,700 |
| 25th to 40th percentile | PGK 6,700 – PGK 9,400 |
| 40th to 55th percentile | PGK 9,400 – PGK 13,000 |
| 55th to 70th percentile | PGK 13,000 – PGK 17,000 |
| 70th to 80th percentile | PGK 17,000 – PGK 21,000 |
| 80th to 90th percentile | PGK 21,000 – PGK 29,000 |
| 90th to 95th percentile | PGK 29,000 – PGK 39,000 |
| 95th to 98th percentile | PGK 39,000 – PGK 54,000 |
| 98th to 99th percentile | PGK 54,000 – PGK 68,000 |
| Top 1% | PGK 68,000 or more |
Per earner. The source publishes household consumption divided by everyone in the household; the labels multiply it by 2.97, the people one worker's income stands for in Papua New Guinea, so a person can place their own income.
In Papua New Guinea 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
- 2% of covered years
- Nearest survey
- 15 years from 2024
- Age bands
- none published; the all-ages row answers
- Measured on
- consumption
- Currency
- PGK (PGK)
Why: the nearest measured survey is 15 years from the reference year.
What a reading in Papua New Guinea 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 Papua New Guinea itself.
- Your ground: both incomes with consumer prices in Papua New Guinea taken out, against how the middle of the distribution moved over the same year.
- Nothing is compared across borders. A reading in Papua New Guinea is measured against Papua New Guinea 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.