Income percentiles in Zambia
Where each yearly income band starts in Zambia, in ZMW, and what a reading there measures.
Reference data version 2026.4, reference year 2024.
Three cut-offs
- Bottom tenth
- under ZMW 5,400 a year
- Top tenth
- from ZMW 60,000 a year
- Top hundredth
- from ZMW 170,000 a year
The middle of the distribution, the 40th to 55th percentile, is ZMW 13,000 – ZMW 18,000 a year.
Every band
The 11 bands the income question offers in Zambia, verbatim, lowest first.
| Band | Yearly income |
|---|---|
| Below the 10th percentile | under ZMW 5,400 |
| 10th to 25th percentile | ZMW 5,400 – ZMW 8,800 |
| 25th to 40th percentile | ZMW 8,800 – ZMW 13,000 |
| 40th to 55th percentile | ZMW 13,000 – ZMW 18,000 |
| 55th to 70th percentile | ZMW 18,000 – ZMW 27,000 |
| 70th to 80th percentile | ZMW 27,000 – ZMW 38,000 |
| 80th to 90th percentile | ZMW 38,000 – ZMW 60,000 |
| 90th to 95th percentile | ZMW 60,000 – ZMW 87,000 |
| 95th to 98th percentile | ZMW 87,000 – ZMW 130,000 |
| 98th to 99th percentile | ZMW 130,000 – ZMW 170,000 |
| Top 1% | ZMW 170,000 or more |
Per earner. The source publishes household consumption divided by everyone in the household; the labels multiply it by 2.93, the people one worker's income stands for in Zambia, so a person can place their own income.
In Zambia 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
- 1985 to 2024
- Survey-based years
- 18% of covered years
- Nearest survey
- 2 years from 2024
- Age bands
- none published; the all-ages row answers
- Measured on
- consumption
- Currency
- ZMW (ZMW)
Why: part of the price index had to be bridged rather than read from the national series.
Before 1994 the series is quoted in the prices of the currency introduced that year; real change across the switch is exact.
What a reading in Zambia 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 Zambia itself.
- Your ground: both incomes with consumer prices in Zambia taken out, against how the middle of the distribution moved over the same year.
- Nothing is compared across borders. A reading in Zambia is measured against Zambia 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.