How rich are the Pakistani rich?

How rich are the Pakistani rich? Incredibly so. But the question of how rich are the Pakistani rich, is not easy to answer since the country does not produce detailed data on household incomes and income distribution.

World Bank data provides estimates of the shares in national income for various quintiles of the population for its member nations. Adjusting the estimates to reflect the deterioration in income distribution that has occurred in the last few years, it is safe to assume that some 42 per cent of the total national income is claimed by the top 20 per cent of the population. This means that 36 million people have a combined income of $75.6 billion, which translates into a per capita income of $2,100 or twice the national average. According to the Bank, 27 per cent of the national income goes to 18 million people, the 10 per cent who sit on top of the income pyramid. For them, the per capita income is $2,700. Applying the same distribution for the top 10 per cent and top one per cent of the population as for the entire population, it would appear that the total income of the affluent 1.8 million people is $13.12 billion, or $7,300 per capita, and for the richest 180,000, it is close to $20,000. The super rich 18,000 people have a combined income of $1.31 billion or $72,700 per capita. Since the poorest 10 per cent of the population receives only four per cent of the total income, their income per head is only $400 per annum.

The richest 40,000 people in the country have combined income equal to that of the poorest 18 million people. The super rich — the 18,000 who make up 0.001 per cent of the population — earn 180 times as much as the poorest 18 million. Or, to put it in another way, the super rich earn in just two days what it takes the poor to earn in one year.

Taken from here