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What You Need To Earn To Be In The 1% Across The World

Australia's One-Percenters Are Much Richer Than Canada's
The Rolls Royce Phantom Celestial is on display during the second press day of the 65th Frankfurt Auto Show in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013. More than 1,000 exhibitors will show their products to the public from Sept. 12 through Sept.22, 2013. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
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The Rolls Royce Phantom Celestial is on display during the second press day of the 65th Frankfurt Auto Show in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013. More than 1,000 exhibitors will show their products to the public from Sept. 12 through Sept.22, 2013. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Canada has among the world’s wealthiest one-percenters, but they don’t hold a candle to those in the U.S., Australia or Switzerland.

You need to earn $115,621 U.S. in after-tax income to qualify as being among Canada’s top one per cent of earners, according to research from World Bank economist Branko Milanovic, published in the Washington Post.

That’s far ahead of countries like Italy ($74,134) or Russia ($47,083), but it falls well short of the $157,517 you need to earn in Australia to make the club.

Here are the minimum incomes to qualify for the one per cent club in 25 countries. These are after-tax, U.S.-dollar numbers, adjusted for purchasing power parity, and are for an individual. For a household of two, double the numbers. (Story continues below.)

25: Poland - $46,371

What You Need To Earn To Be In 1%

The numbers are, to an extent, a reflection of inequality.

For instance, Iceland regularly ranks as one of the world’s richest countries, but its one per cent is considerably poorer than Canada’s; you need $82,473 to be an Icelandic one-percenter, or little more than two-thirds what it takes in Canada.

In Iceland, far less income accrues to the wealthiest than it does in Canada.

Milanovic published a research paper earlier this year arguing that the most important element determining how wealthy you are is the country you live in.

The enormous variation in wealth between countries and income inequality within countries, two factors individuals can do little about, is the largest determinant of wealth, Milanovic argued.

“The role of effort or luck cannot play a large role in explaining the global distribution of individual income,” he concluded.

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