Where you fit
Are you in the global 1%? You might be closer than you think.
Almost everyone in a wealthy country sits near the very top of the world's income ladder — and almost no one feels it. A full-time salary that feels ordinary at home often lands in the richest few percent of humanity. Enter your income and see exactly where you fit →
The global median income is only about 3,000 international dollars per person per year. Someone earning a typical rich-country wage can be earning ten to twenty times that — placing them in the top 2 to 4 percent of the world. Seeing that clearly is not a guilt trip; it is the most hopeful fact in giving, because it means a small share of an ordinary income goes an extraordinarily long way. At the estimates of the most effective charities, giving 10 percent could fund thousands of anti-malaria bednets, or deworm thousands of children, every year.
For the rigorous version, see Giving What We Can's How Rich Am I.