Personal gross income rises 4.8% in 2015, says KSH

Average annual net income rose by 4.6% to HUF 1.15 million and, with consumer prices falling by 0.1%, real income increased 4.7%. 

Around 69% of gross income came from wages in 2015, up from 68.2% a year earlier. Social transfers accounted for 29% of gross income, down from 29.8%. Other income - including financial earnings - contributed 2%, just as in 2014.

Gross income per capita from wages rose 6.1% from 2014, while social transfers per capita rose 2.2%.

Incomes rose in all ten deciles of society. Net income of the bottom four deciles rose the most, by around 5-6%, while income of the top two deciles rose at the slowest pace, at 4.2% and 3.7%, respectively. For the remaining deciles, income growth was around the national average.

Despite a closing income gap, the difference between the lowest and highest decile is still wide. Average net income in the bottom decile was HUF 334,000 annually, 29% of the national average, while in the top decile it was HUF 2.74 mln, 240% of the national average.

The Gini coefficient measuring income distribution was 28.2 points in 2015, basically unchanged from the year before.

When comparing incomes to a national median and dividing the population into five categories, data show that the share of people in the "upper class" was slightly down at 7.4% in 2015 from 7.6% in 2014. The share of the "lower class" was also down at 7.8% from 9%. This change presents a deviation from a broad trend since 2006 that showed the ratio of the upper and the lower classes growing and the share of the middle class declining.

A regional breakdown reveals that Pest County and Budapest still punch above their weight when it comes to incomes. Pest County had 12.6% of the population in 2015 but 14.1% of national income, while Budapest had 17.6% of the population and 20.9% of income.

In 2015 personal gross income was the lowest in the northern part of the Great Plain at HUF 1.39 mln a year, and the highest in Central Hungary at HUF 1.69 mln.

There was a clear difference in personal incomes depending on the number of children raised in a household. Annual personal net income for households without children was HUF 1.39 mln, but was only HUF 896,000 for households with children. Single males living in independent households had the highest income, earning on average net HUF 1.59 mln annually last year.

Data shows that income rises both by level of education and by age. Those with only a primary education had HUF 724,000 net annual income, those with secondary education earned HUF 1.18 mln, and those with tertiary education HUF 1.6 mln.

Annual net income was HUF 913,000 for people younger than 25 years old, rising to HUF 1.08 mln for people aged 25-54, and to HUF 1.23 mln for those aged 55-64. People older than 65 had HUF 1.32 mln annual net income.