Countries by Income Share of the Bottom 40 Percent: 2026 Latest-Observation Snapshot

Overview: how to read the bottom-40 income share by country

The bottom-40 share is a distribution indicator. It answers one narrow question: what share of measured income or consumption goes to the poorest 40 percent of people in a country’s household survey distribution? It is not a poverty headcount, not a median income measure and not a measure of absolute living standards.

In a perfectly equal distribution, the bottom 40 percent would receive 40 percent of total income or consumption. No country in this table comes close to that benchmark. The highest values are around 23–25 percent, which means the ranking identifies relatively more even distributions, not equal societies.

Top 10 countries by World Bank bottom 40 share

The Top 10 is led by Belarus, Azerbaijan, India and Slovenia. The upper group is strongly represented by Europe and Central Asia, but the interpretation is shaped by survey timing: Azerbaijan’s high value is from 2005, while several European entries use 2023 observations.

Values are rounded to one decimal place after summing the two WDI/PIP component series. Equal rounded values are ordered alphabetically by country name.

Methodology

The ranking uses a static distribution measure: the share of total income or consumption accruing to the bottom 40 percent of the population. WDI publishes the two relevant quintile shares separately, so the displayed bottom-40 value is calculated as a component sum.

• Formula: bottom-40 share = SI.DST.FRST.20 + SI.DST.02ND.20.
• Source hierarchy: official World Bank WDI/PIP component series first; PIP and World Bank shared prosperity documentation for methodology and comparability context.
• Unit: percent of income or consumption. Values are rounded to one decimal place after summing the two component series.
• Direction: higher values mean the lowest two quintiles receive a larger share of measured welfare.
• Target year: 2026 latest-observation snapshot. The row year is the latest available survey observation for that country, not a same-year 2026 measurement.
• Inclusion rule: countries only; aggregates, regions and income groups are excluded; both component series must be present for the same country observation.
• Ranking rule: rows are ranked by calculated value in descending order. If rounded values tie, countries are ordered alphabetically by country name.
• Status rule: each row is marked official_value because it is derived from official WDI/PIP component observations. The final bottom-40 value is a calculated sum, not a separate official forecast or modeled projection.
• Income vs consumption: countries may use income-based or consumption-based household welfare concepts depending on survey practice. Consumption distributions often look smoother than income distributions.
• Limit: old survey observations remain valid historical observations but are weaker evidence for current conditions than 2023 or 2024 rows.

The metric does not measure the absolute income of poor households, the poverty rate, the Gini index, public-service quality, purchasing power or the growth of the bottom 40 percent. It should be read with poverty, median income, Gini and survey-year information.

Data freshness: why survey year matters

Household surveys are not collected on the same schedule in every country. This table therefore combines the latest available country observations rather than forcing all countries into a single 2026 reporting year.

Main ranking table: Top 100 countries by lowest 40 percent income share

Use the controls to search by country, filter by region or value type, and sort by rank, value, year or country name. The original rank is based on value descending with alphabetical ordering for equal rounded values.

Showing 100 rows.

Source note: values are calculated from World Bank WDI/PIP component series SI.DST.FRST.20 and SI.DST.02ND.20. Data checked: June 17, 2026. Countries only; aggregates and regions excluded; both component values must be available for the same country observation.

Insights from the ranking

What this ranking means

For readers comparing living standards, the bottom-40 share should be read as a distribution signal, not as a welfare level. A country can have a relatively high bottom-40 share and still have widespread poverty if average income is low.

For policy analysis, the ranking helps identify where lower-income households receive a larger or smaller share of measured welfare. The next step is to compare these countries with poverty rates, median household income, public transfers, labor-market participation and the Gini index.

For researchers, journalists and investors, the survey-year column is essential. Recent observations from 2023 or 2024 are more useful for current interpretation than old observations, even when old observations rank highly.

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