Median Household Income Increased 4% To $7,870

3

3 things we learnt from the recently released Singstat report

The Department of Statistics Singapore released its Key Household Income Trends report for 2013 earlier this year and it seems to suggest that all is well in the economy and most key indicators point to improvement in the income trends. So here are a few of the more important indicators that are explored in the report.

Household Income

1. Median Household income has grown over the last year

The report indicates that the median household income from work has increased for households with at least one working person. Household income is defined as the sum of income received by working members of household from employment and business, excluding income of domestic helpers.

This increase is from an amount of $7,570 in 2012 to $7,870 in 2013.

The report also states that over the last five years, median household income from work has increased by 11 percent in real terms (i.e. taking inflation into account). When the number of people working per household is factored in, the percentage increase is 3.2 percent in real terms per person.

Real household income per household member has also increased in the top 9 deciles (each decile group is a split of 10% by income). Additionally, over the last 5 years, all 10 deciles have seen increases in real household income.

2. Government transfers have increased to smaller apartments

Government transfers include all the government welfare scheme that the Singapore government operates including rebates on utilities. The schemes have spent more on smaller HDB 1 and 2 room flats in the last year.

This figure has increased to $8,630 per household member from $7,210 that was given out in 2012. This shows that the government’s continuing commitment to help those who need the help and also make sure that income is distributed in a fairer manner.

3. Income inequality decreased in 2013

According to the report, the GINI coefficient which measures the income inequality in the country has decreased from 0.478 in 2012 to 0.463 in 2013. This means that the government has been effective in redistributing income. After adjustment for government welfare schemes and taxes the GINI coefficient fell from 0.463 to 0.412.

These are the three main points put across by the report and signal that the economy is being well managed by the Singapore government and its policies. We will be publishing another article that examines how these figures really stack up when compared to the rest of the world.

To see more of such posts, please Like our Facebook page:

Share.

About Author

3 Comments

  1. Pingback: Median Household Income Increased 4% To $7,870 - Salary.sg Forums

  2. Pingback: How does Singapore really stack up against the rest of the world?

Leave A Reply