Household Income and Affordability Calculator

Instructions

Reliable household income data for emerging markets is often hugely challenging to find, particularly below national or state level. Developed with support from Warwick Business School and using household expenditure as a proxy for income (except for Pakistan, where income data is available), this calculator presents raw household consumption survey data from national statistical offices of five countries, and then using median annual inflation data, predicts current and future income levels at each centile of the income pyramid.

Step 1: Pick Location and Year

Using the drop down menus, select your preference in terms of country, survey, state/province, county/district, urban/rural and the year that you want the data to represent.

This then populates the graph and summary figures below, with the green line showing data for the original survey year, and the blue line showing the projected year. Sample size is highlighted in red if it drops below 100 responses.

Step 2: Add Mortgage Terms

Using the sliders, select your choice of proportion of total household income used for housing, annual interest rate, deposit and length of mortgage term. This populates the table below, showing the maximum affordable monthly payment and house price at each income decile.

Warning: Income/expenditure data are notoriously unreliable, particularly for wealthier groups, and this unreliability is only multiplied when projecting this data to future years. This calculator is not attempting to provide definitive figures, but a rough estimation. It will continue to be built on as new surveys are released.

Sources and methodology papers for each survey can be found here – India (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, 2018), Kenya (Kenya National Bureau of Statistics 2016, 2020), Nigeria (Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, 2019), Pakistan (Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, 2019), Uganda (Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 2020).

We would love to hear your feedback, criticisms, and ideas for further improvements. Please reach out to [email protected].