How Population Incomes Are Growing: Statistics for the Last 5 Years
Real Household Consumption Growth by Economy
This 2026 reading ranks economies by the World Bank World Development Indicators series NE.CON.PRVT.PC.KD.ZG: household and NPISH final consumption expenditure per capita growth, measured as annual percent change. It is a real per-person consumption-growth ranking, not a direct ranking of wages, salaries or household income.
The table uses the current public WDI release available in July 2026. Rows use the most recent country or economy reading shown for 2023, 2024 or 2025. Higher yearly growth ranks higher.
Real household consumption per person can reflect income, transfers, remittances, savings, credit, price adjustment, recovery effects and national-accounts revisions. For that reason, it should be read as a spending-power signal rather than a clean income statistic.
Bulgaria has the highest yearly real-consumption-per-person growth value in the ranking.
Kyrgyz Republic ranks second, which shows how large the Bulgarian outlier is.
Countries and economies are listed down to the shared 6.3% value.
Rows use readings from 2023, 2024 or 2025, depending on country reporting.
Figures are not 2026 forecasts or synthetic estimates.
Overview: what this metric means
Household final consumption is the value of goods and services used by households, with nonprofit institutions serving households included in this WDI series. The per-capita growth rate adjusts the series for population, and the yearly percent unit makes fast-growing smaller economies comparable with larger economies in direction and speed of change.
How to read it
A higher value means real household and NPISH consumption per person grew faster in that economy’s most recent reported year. It does not mean the country has the highest income level or the richest households.
Why countries differ
Countries can move up because of post-crisis recovery, strong domestic demand, remittances, public transfers, credit growth, tourism recovery, demographic change, lower inflation pressure or national-accounts revisions.
Main limitation
The indicator does not show distribution. Fast average consumption growth can coexist with unequal gains, cost-of-living stress or weak wage growth for part of the population.
What it is not
This is not a five-year compound income-growth table, not a wage ranking, not household disposable income and not a poverty or inequality ranking.
Top 10 economies by real household consumption growth per person
The top ten are led by a very large Bulgarian value, followed by Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Iraq. Several of the highest positions are economies where one yearly reading can reflect a rebound, a low base, a data revision or a rapid shift in household spending conditions.
Top 10 by WDI yearly percent value
| Rank | Entity | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bulgaria | 67.5% | 2025; Europe & Central Asia. |
| 2 | Kyrgyz Republic | 21.7% | 2025; Europe & Central Asia. |
| 3 | Tajikistan | 13.3% | 2024; Europe & Central Asia. |
| 4 | Iraq | 11.3% | 2024; Middle East & North Africa. |
| 5 | United Arab Emirates | 9.7% | 2023; Middle East & North Africa. |
| 6 | Kiribati | 8.9% | 2024; East Asia & Pacific. |
| 7 | Armenia | 8.8% | 2025; Europe & Central Asia. |
| 8 | Rwanda | 8.0% | 2025; Sub-Saharan Africa. |
| 9 | San Marino | 7.9% | 2023; Europe & Central Asia. |
| 10 | Mongolia | 7.8% | 2025; East Asia & Pacific. |
Values are shown to one decimal place. Economies with the same rounded value should not be read as meaningfully different without the full-precision series.
Chart: the outlier and the rest of the ranking
Bulgaria’s 67.5% value dominates a normal bar scale. The full comparison is shown first, followed by a second chart without Bulgaria so the remaining economies can be compared more clearly.
Full scale
Comparison without Bulgaria
Methodology
The metric is World Bank indicator NE.CON.PRVT.PC.KD.ZG: household and NPISH final consumption expenditure per capita growth, annual percent. The unit is annual %, and the ranking direction is descending: a larger positive value ranks higher.
Where the numbers come from
The values come from the WDI annual-percent series available in July 2026. The series measures real household and NPISH consumption growth per person, not income level or wage growth.
How the unit was checked
The ranking uses NE.CON.PRVT.PC.KD.ZG only. It does not use NE.CON.PRVT.CN.AD, which is a local-currency value series rather than an annual-percent growth series.
Countries and economies covered
Regional aggregates such as World, South Asia, OECD members and income groups are excluded. Countries and economies are listed down to the shared 6.3% value so tied displayed readings are kept together.
How the ranking is ordered
Values are shown to one decimal place. Sorting follows the numeric value shown in the table, from highest to lowest. Equal rounded values should be read with caution.
Figures are not 2026 forecasts. They are reported country and economy readings from the current WDI release, interpreted as a 2026 information snapshot.
The main limits are important: yearly real consumption growth can be affected by temporary rebounds, starting-level effects, public support, remittances, credit, savings drawdown, demographic change, inflation adjustment and revisions to national accounts. The metric does not measure median wages, disposable income after tax, wealth, inequality, poverty reduction, household debt or cost-of-living pressure.
Main ranking: leading economies by real consumption growth
Search by economy, filter by region, change the sort order or switch between Top 10, Top 20 and all listed countries and economies.
Real household and NPISH consumption per person growth, annual percent
| Rank | Entity | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bulgaria | 67.5% | 2025; Europe & Central Asia. |
| 2 | Kyrgyz Republic | 21.7% | 2025; Europe & Central Asia. |
| 3 | Tajikistan | 13.3% | 2024; Europe & Central Asia. |
| 4 | Iraq | 11.3% | 2024; Middle East & North Africa. |
| 5 | United Arab Emirates | 9.7% | 2023; Middle East & North Africa. |
| 6 | Kiribati | 8.9% | 2024; East Asia & Pacific. |
| 7 | Armenia | 8.8% | 2025; Europe & Central Asia. |
| 8 | Rwanda | 8.0% | 2025; Sub-Saharan Africa. |
| 9 | San Marino | 7.9% | 2023; Europe & Central Asia. |
| 10 | Mongolia | 7.8% | 2025; East Asia & Pacific. |
| 11 | Argentina | 7.5% | 2025; Latin America & Caribbean. |
| 12 | Egypt, Arab Rep. | 7.5% | 2025; Middle East & North Africa. |
| 13 | Uzbekistan | 7.4% | 2025; Europe & Central Asia. |
| 14 | Maldives | 7.1% | 2024; South Asia. |
| 15 | Sri Lanka | 7.0% | 2025; South Asia. |
| 16 | India | 6.7% | 2025; South Asia. |
| 17 | Viet Nam | 6.7% | 2025; East Asia & Pacific. |
| 18 | Belarus | 6.5% | 2025; Europe & Central Asia. |
| 19 | Sao Tome and Principe | 6.5% | 2025; Sub-Saharan Africa. |
| 20 | Ukraine | 6.3% | 2024; Europe & Central Asia. |
| 21 | Mauritania | 6.3% | 2025; Sub-Saharan Africa. |
The 21-row table keeps both economies at 6.3% instead of dropping one tied displayed value.
Insights from the ranking
Key insight
Bulgaria is the standout value at 67.5%, more than three times the second-ranked Kyrgyz Republic value of 21.7%. That makes it an outlier rather than a typical high-growth case.
Notable pattern
Europe and Central Asia has the largest presence near the top, with Bulgaria, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Armenia, San Marino, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Ukraine all appearing in the table.
Regional spread
The table is not limited to one region. It includes Middle East and North Africa economies, South Asian economies, East Asia and Pacific economies, Sub-Saharan African economies and Argentina from Latin America.
Outlier caution
The second chart is necessary because a single extreme value compresses the rest of the bars. Readers should compare both the full scale and the outlier-adjusted view before drawing conclusions.
What this ranking means for readers
The ranking helps answer where real household consumption per person is rising fastest in the most recent WDI readings. It is useful for understanding spending-side momentum, especially when readers want a broad signal related to household economic conditions.
A high rank does not automatically mean households are rich. A lower-income economy can show faster percentage growth from a lower starting level, while a higher-income economy may grow slowly but still have much higher real consumption per person.
The safest reading is comparative but cautious: treat the values as yearly real consumption-growth signals, then check wage data, inflation, poverty, inequality, household debt, remittances and disposable-income data before making conclusions about living standards.
FAQ
Is this an income ranking?
No. It is a real household-consumption-per-person growth ranking. Consumption growth can be related to income, but it can also be influenced by transfers, remittances, savings, borrowing, prices and statistical revisions.
Which economy ranks first?
Bulgaria ranks first in the table with a displayed annual-percent value of 67.5% for 2025.
Why is the Bulgarian value so large?
The value should be treated as an outlier. Yearly growth indicators can move sharply because of base effects, revisions, recovery patterns or changes in measured household consumption. A second chart removes Bulgaria for easier comparison.
Why are different years used?
Country and economy series are not always updated to the same year at the same time. The table uses the most recent reading within 2023–2025 and shows the year in the note column.
Does one-year growth equal a five-year trend?
No. A one-year growth rate can be volatile. It should not be read as a five-year compound growth rate or a stable long-term trend.
What does the metric exclude?
It does not measure median wages, disposable income after tax, wealth, income inequality, poverty reduction, household debt or whether gains are distributed evenly across households.
Sources
World Bank Data — Household and NPISH consumption per capita growth
Primary source for the indicator name, country and economy values, years, annual-percent unit and source description. Accessed July 8, 2026.
World Bank World Development Indicators
Reference environment for internationally comparable national-accounts indicators and WDI data context.
https://datatopics.worldbank.org/world-development-indicators/
World Bank Data Help Desk — Indicator API queries
Reference for indicator-code lookup and indicator query structure.
https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/898599-indicator-api-queries
World Bank Data — Household and NPISH consumption, linked current LCU
Listed only to clarify that the ranking does not use local-currency value-level data.
