An income percentile indicates the percentage of individuals in a given population whose income is at or below a specific income level. For instance, if your income is at the 80th percentile, it means your income is higher than 80% of the people in that population group. Conversely, 20% of the people have an income equal to or greater than yours.
This calculator helps you determine where your income stands relative to a provided dataset. It's a useful tool for understanding your economic standing, setting financial goals, and comparing your earnings to others in a similar demographic, geographic region, or profession.
How the Calculator Works (The Math Behind Percentiles)
To calculate the percentile rank of a specific income (let's call it X) within a dataset of incomes, the following steps are generally followed:
Sort the Data: All the incomes in the provided dataset are arranged in ascending order (from lowest to highest).
Count Values Below: Count the number of incomes in the dataset that are strictly less than your annual income (X). Let this count be N_below.
Count Equal Values: Count the number of incomes in the dataset that are exactly equal to your annual income (X). Let this count be N_equal.
Calculate Percentile Rank: The percentile rank is calculated using the formula:
Percentile Rank = (N_below + 0.5 * N_equal) / Total Number of Incomes * 100
The 0.5 * N_equal factor is used to provide a more accurate representation, essentially placing individuals with the same income value in the middle of their rank.
Interpretation: The resulting number is your percentile rank. For example, a rank of 75 means you earn more than 75% of the incomes in the dataset.
Example Calculation:
Suppose your Annual Income is $65,000 and the Income Data is: $30,000, $45,000, $55,000, $65,000, $65,000, $70,000, $85,000, $95,000.
The dataset has 8 incomes.
Incomes strictly less than $65,000 are: $30,000, $45,000, $55,000. So, N_below = 3.
Incomes equal to $65,000 are: $65,000, $65,000. So, N_equal = 2.
function calculatePercentile() {
var incomeInput = document.getElementById("annualIncome");
var dataInput = document.getElementById("incomeData");
var resultDiv = document.getElementById("result");
var myIncome = parseFloat(incomeInput.value);
var dataString = dataInput.value;
if (isNaN(myIncome) || myIncome = 0;
});
if (incomes.length === 0) {
resultDiv.innerHTML = "No valid income data was entered.";
return;
}
incomes.sort(function(a, b) {
return a – b;
});
var nBelow = 0;
var nEqual = 0;
var totalIncomes = incomes.length;
for (var i = 0; i < totalIncomes; i++) {
if (incomes[i] < myIncome) {
nBelow++;
} else if (incomes[i] === myIncome) {
nEqual++;
}
}
// Handle case where myIncome is lower than all values in the dataset
if (myIncome incomes[totalIncomes – 1]) {
// Handle case where myIncome is higher than all values
nBelow = totalIncomes;
nEqual = 0; // myIncome is not present in the dataset if it's strictly greater than the maximum
}
var percentileRank = 0;
if (totalIncomes > 0) {
// The formula (N_below + 0.5 * N_equal) / Total * 100 is standard.
// However, if your income is NOT in the list, and you just want to know what % of people earn less than you,
// you'd just use N_below / Total * 100.
// For this calculator, we use the N_below + 0.5 * N_equal which is common for rank-based percentiles.
percentileRank = (nBelow + 0.5 * nEqual) / totalIncomes * 100;
}
resultDiv.innerHTML = "Your annual income of " + myIncome.toLocaleString(undefined, { minimumFractionDigits: 0, maximumFractionDigits: 0 }) + " is at the " + percentileRank.toFixed(1) + "th percentile.";
}