[12 December 2017]Please note that this press release is no longer valid. A corrected version has been published in its place.
The income distribution did not change significantly between 2014 and 2015. The Gini-index rose by 0.9 points, which falls far short of statistical significance. Therefore, it cannot be concluded that income inequality in Iceland has risen between the two years.
The At-risk-of-poverty rate, defined as those with less than 60% of the population’s median income, rose from 7.9% in 2014 to 9.6% in 2015. The AROP-rate has fluctuated somewhat from one year to the next since 2011, but these annual fluctuations are not statistically significant.
Disposable income tends to rise with age up until around retirement age. In 2015, the disposable income of 25-34 year olds was 291,300 ISK and 370,900 ISK for people in the 55-64 age group. People over 64 years had the lowest disposable income, or 274,800 ISK. The oldest group has, however, made some gains since 2004 relative to the population median whereas people in the age of 25-34 years have fallen behind. In 2004 the disposable income of 25-34 year olds was 101.9% of the population median. By 2015 they were down to 95.3%. In 2004 the disposable income of people over 64 was 79.5% of the population median but by 2015 it was up to 89.9%.
Methods
Information on the income distribution is derived from the Survey of Income and Living Conditions. Survey data is collected from February until May each year but income data is derived from tax data for the preceding year. Thus, the income reference period of each year is the year before.