The analyses that are presented here are based on the equivalised disposable income. This is calculated by subtracting the compulsory transfer expenditure (social insurance contributions, taxes, premiums for compulsory health insurance and regular transfers to other households such as child maintenance) from the gross income and by dividing the balance by the equivalised household size. This estimate enables a better comparison of the income of people living in different size households. Analyses are therefore carried out at individual and not household level.
In order to take into consideration the financial advantage represented by owning one's dwelling or by benefiting from rent that is lower than the market rate, an "imputed rent" is considered in the equivalised disposable income. This corresponds to rental value of this property, after deduction of the dwelling costs actually paid.
There are several ways to represent the distribution of income in a population. A common representation of the distribution of income is to classify individuals according to their income level and to identify the values that divide all of the population into equal sized groups, for example, into ten groups that each consist of one tenth of the population. The upper limit values of the ten equal sized income groups are called deciles. The extremities (1st and 9th decile) and the median equivalised disposable income by different sociodemographic characteristics are presented in the table below.
