Find out how much you have to earn to belong to each level
According to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), middle class people earn between 75% and 200% of a country’s median income. In Portugal, the median monthly income is 918 euros, or 11,014 euros per year, considering 2022 data.
According to the OECD, 60.1% of the Portuguese population is in the middle class, 16.8% have a low income (between 50% and 75% of the median), 12.4% are poor and 10.6% have high incomes.
With this data, we can conclude that to belong to the middle class in Portugal it is enough to earn 688 euros net per month. Those who earn more than 1,836 euros net per month, which is below the minimum wage in some European countries, are considered upper class in Portugal.
On the other hand, those earning less than 688 euros a month are considered to be in the lower class in Portugal.
The data also shows that the Portuguese middle class is one of those with the least purchasing power in the European Union. For example, in Portugal, those who earn 15,500 euros a year belong to the upper-middle class. In Spain or Italy, that same income belongs to the lower-middle class.
In 11 EU countries, such as France, Germany or Ireland, those who earn that amount a year don’t even make it into the middle class, but are considered lower-middle class.
Portugal is also the country where the fewest middle class families identify themselves as such, as only 32% say they are middle class. On the other hand, 82% of the population in the Netherlands say they are middle class.