Income and wealth percentile in Hong Kong
a year per adult, before tax; half of adults in Hong Kong earn less
The wealth ladder in Hong Kong
The middle adult in Hong Kong holds HK$1,732,568 in net worth. The top 10% of holders begins at HK$10,575,071 and the top 1% at HK$47,989,206, which is 28 times the middle.
In Hong Kong the middle adult earns HK$273,476 a year before tax and holds HK$1,732,568 in net worth. The top 10% of earners begins at HK$954,342, and the top 1% of wealth at HK$47,989,206. Figures are per adult, in HKD.
Built for Hong Kong
Calculators and reference pages that answer for Hong Kong specifically.
Every published line
Income and net worth per adult in Hong Kong, in HKD.
| The line | Income | Net worth |
|---|---|---|
| Median | HK$273,476 | HK$1,732,568 |
| Average | HK$518,851 | HK$5,109,208 |
| Top 10% | HK$954,342 | HK$10,575,071 |
| Top 1% | HK$3,710,815 | HK$47,989,206 |
| Top 0.1% | HK$13,349,965 | HK$200,567,971 |
| Top 0.01% | HK$47,603,178 | HK$838,261,640 |
What the numbers say about Hong Kong
Hong Kong's median income is around HK$273,000 per adult, roughly $35,000 at current exchange rates. The average sits at HK$519,000, almost double the median. That gap reflects one of the most concentrated income distributions among rich economies. Finance, professional services, and a long-established trading and shipping sector anchor the top of the wage curve. The territory has no consumption tax, no capital-gains tax, and a flat individual income tax that caps at 15 percent.
Real estate dominates the wealth picture more completely than in any other developed economy. Median household net worth per adult is around HK$1.73 million, almost all of it in property. Hong Kong has run the most expensive housing market in the world for two decades by most measures, with price-to-income ratios above 20 in central districts. A 600-square-foot flat in Mid-Levels can sell for HK$15 million. The supply constraint is structural. Most usable land is government-leased and released slowly, which has created the long appreciation curve property owners have ridden since the early 1990s.
The top of the wealth distribution is anchored by a small group of family conglomerates, often called the local property tycoons. The Lee family (Henderson Land), the Kwok family (Sun Hung Kai), the Cheng family (New World), the Li Ka-shing CK Hutchison empire, and a handful of others control significant fractions of commercial property, retail, ports, and utilities. The top 1% threshold for wealth sits above HK$48 million, with the top 0.1% above HK$200 million. Old Hong Kong wealth has historically dwarfed almost every form of new wealth except recent mainland-China inflows.
The post-2020 emigration wave has reshaped the demographic curve. Roughly 200,000 residents left for the UK, Canada, and Australia between 2020 and 2024, mostly from the educated middle class. Mainland Chinese migration through the Top Talent Pass and similar schemes has partially offset the outflow numerically, but the new arrivals tend to be financially stronger and shift the distribution upward. The gap between long-term residents and recent professional arrivals has widened.
Two themes shape the next decade. The financial centre's role is being slowly rebalanced toward mainland China business, while Singapore captures more of the international flow. And the property market, which carried wealth for forty years, has finally entered a structural correction with limited prospect of returning to pre-2019 highs.
Common questions
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Where do these figures come from?
Nearby by median income
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Method and sources
- World Inequality DatabasePretax national income per adult and net household wealth per adult.
- World Bank Informal Economy DatabaseInformal output as a share of GDP, the input to the level correction.
How the lines are worked out
The national distribution is fitted as a log-normal body with a Pareto top tail and read at each published point, per adult. Where a country’s own records measure less activity than its output implies, the level of the distribution is lifted toward the implied figure and the spread is left as published: that correction is set out in full on how we measure.
How a percentile is read off it
A percentile is the share of adults at or below a figure. The percentile methodology page states the fit, the anchors and the vintage.
What these figures do not cover
- Per adult, not per household. Couples are counted separately, so household figures run higher.
- Income is gross, before income tax and employee contributions.
- Local currency at the reference rate carried with the record, HK$1 = $0.13.
- A national figure says nothing about a region or an occupation inside it.
Last updated July 2026.
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