Income and wealth percentile in Israel
a year per adult, before tax; half of adults in Israel earn less
The wealth ladder in Israel
The middle adult in Israel holds ₪328,779 in net worth. The top 10% of holders begins at ₪2,320,604 and the top 1% at ₪11,642,712, which is 35 times the middle.
In Israel the middle adult earns ₪156,152 a year before tax and holds ₪328,779 in net worth. The top 10% of earners begins at ₪614,306, and the top 1% of wealth at ₪11,642,712. Figures are per adult, in ILS.
Every published line
Income and net worth per adult in Israel, in ILS.
| The line | Income | Net worth |
|---|---|---|
| Median | ₪156,152 | ₪328,779 |
| Average | ₪307,836 | ₪1,166,193 |
| Top 10% | ₪614,306 | ₪2,320,604 |
| Top 1% | ₪2,303,892 | ₪11,642,712 |
| Top 0.1% | ₪7,168,306 | ₪52,960,111 |
| Top 0.01% | ₪22,845,693 | ₪240,903,784 |
What the numbers say about Israel
Israeli median income is around ₪156,000 per adult, roughly $42,000 at current exchange rates. The average sits at ₪308,000, almost double. That ratio is among the widest in the OECD and signals a deeply bimodal economy. The top end is anchored by a high-technology sector that has produced more venture-backed listings per capita than any country except the United States. The middle and bottom hold a much slower-growing services and public-sector base.
The Silicon Wadi cluster around Tel Aviv concentrates most of the top-end income. Cybersecurity, semiconductor design, fintech, and a long tail of enterprise-software firms have built export revenue that punches far above the country's nine-million population. A senior software engineer at Mobileye, Check Point, or NICE earns within striking distance of US Bay Area pay. The 1990s wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union, which brought a large stock of trained engineers and physicists, helped seed the cluster. Military intelligence units, particularly Unit 8200, function as an informal training ground for many of the founders.
The income distribution is held wider than the headline figure suggests by two demographic facts. The Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish population, roughly 13 percent of the country and growing fast, has historically had low male labour-force participation, with many men engaged full-time in religious study. The Arab Israeli population, around 21 percent, has lower employment rates among women and is concentrated in lower-paying occupations. Both groups receive significant state transfer income but show much lower market wages than the secular Jewish majority. Government policy since 2010 has tried to raise participation in both communities, with mixed results.
Wealth concentration at the top is sharp. The top 1% threshold for net worth sits above ₪11.6 million, with the top 0.1% above ₪52.9 million. Tech-equity wealth, particularly from acquisitions and IPOs, dominates the upper deciles. Tel Aviv real estate, which has appreciated roughly 150 percent since 2008, drives the middle-to-upper wealth distribution. Beyond Tel Aviv and the central coastal strip, property values drop substantially.
Two themes shape the next decade. The October 2023 war has disrupted economic activity and emigration patterns in ways that will take years to fully resolve. And the demographic balance, with Haredi fertility above six children per woman, will continue to shift the labour-force composition.
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, ₪1 = $0.27.
- A national figure says nothing about a region or an occupation inside it.
Last updated July 2026.
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