Glossary:Income terciles
In social statistics, income terciles are computed on the basis of the total equivalised disposable income attributed to each member of the household.
The data (of each person) are ordered according to the value of the total equivalised disposable income. Two cut-point values (the so-called tercile cut-off points) of income are identified, dividing the survey population into three groups equally represented by 33.3 % of individuals each:
- first tercile group of equivalised income;
- second tercile group of equivalised income;
- third tercile group of equivalised income.
The first tercile group represents 33.3 % of the population with the lowest income (an income smaller or equal to the first cut-off value), and the third tercile group represents the 33.3 % of population with the highest income (an income greater than the second cut-off value).