Disposable income measures how much money a person has available to spend on goods and services after paying their taxes. It is the money available for spending and savings after subtracting taxes from gross income. Think of disposable income as your earnings minus necessary expenses such as your mortgage payment, groceries and health insurance, but less the taxes you paid.
Income minus these expenses and taxes is known as discretionary income, i.e. income that is available for entertainment and other expenses not necessary for survival. Per capita simply means average per person. Thus, disposable income per capita for a country is calculated by adding all the gross income for the country minus taxes and dividing the sum by the country’s population.
Here are the top 20 countries with the highest incomes in the world.
| Rank | Country | Average income per year |
| 1. | United States | $53,202 |
| 2. | Luxembourg | $49,239 |
| 3. | Germany | $43,904 |
| 4. | Switzerland | $43,879 |
| 5. | Norway | $42,793 |
| 6. | Australia | $42,438 |
| 7. | Austria | $40,907 |
| 8. | Belgium | $39,127 |
| 9. | Netherlands | $38,639 |
| 10. | France | $38,408 |
| 11. | Finland | $37,699 |
| 12. | Denmark | $37,428 |
| 13. | Canada | $37,017 |
| 14. | Sweden | $36,626 |
| 15. | United Kingdom | $36,553 |
| 16. | Italy | $33,580 |
| 17. | New Zealand | $33,442 |
| 18. | Ireland | $32,425 |
| 19. | Japan | $30,022 |
| 20. | Spain | $29,790 |
