Mean and Median Household Income

The mean and the median are the two averages required in the A level Economics exam syllabus. This video looks at mean and median household income for the UK.

Mean household income is averageincome per household. The mean income value answers the question: “If income would be equally distributed to all people, how much would everyone earn?”

The mean does not reflect the underlying inequality in a data set of household incomes

Median household income is the income level at the midpoint of all households ranked (arranged) by their income. The median answers the question: “What does the person earn who earns exactly more than 50% and less than 50% of the population?”

We tend to use the median when the data is skewed and there are outliers for example with super-high incomes that tends to drag up the mean value.

Mean household disposable income in the UK was £35,600 in 2019

Median household disposable income in the UK was £29,600 in 2019