Balls on Pensions

Andy_L

lvader wrote: »

That was my point, or is that not a mathematical formula?

If 1 person earns £50k, 4 people earn £30k, and 10 people earn £10k. What is the middle income?

The median is the middle position in a sample of numbers. In your example it is £10k.
Its used frequently in looking at salaries because its less sensitive to extremes unlike the mean or mathematical average. Using that in your example would give £18k which wouldn't reflect most peoples position

lvader

I never said median or avarage, I never intended median or average. Middle and median do not mean the same thing.

Andy_L

lvader wrote: »

I never said median or avarage, I never intended median or average. Middle and median do not mean the same thing.

Then, ignoring that median and middle are synonyms, what do you mean by "middle income"

lvader

Take the range of incomes that covers around 99.9% of working people, i.e. ignore the very low and very top incomes. Divide the range equally into low, medium and high. The middle bit is what I intend as middle income. It has nothing to do with how many people are in each section.

zagfles

Andy_L wrote: »

Then, ignoring that median and middle are synonyms, what do you mean by "middle income"

They're not synonyms, median has a precise mathematical definition and an exact value for any given range of measures. Middle is more vague and implies a range, like "high" or "low". Eg being middle-aged doesn't imply you're the exact median age, it's an age range maybe 35-55

ukcarper

zagfles wrote: »

They're not synonyms, median has a precise mathematical definition and an exact value for any given range of measures. Middle is more vague and implies a range, like "high" or "low". Eg being middle-aged doesn't imply you're the exact median age, it's an age range maybe 35-55

So middle is pretty meaning less and can be defined as you like. You could say middle earnings are about £75k as earning £150k is not unheard off as is earning £0 but the number of people effect by a tax effecting middle earners by that definition would be small.

antrobus

lvader wrote: »

Neither does a house but the value does offset the debt on it.

Well that might be because the income generated by that class of asset known as 'houses' is generally known as 'rent' rather than 'interest'.

Generali

Median only works for a normal distribution. For a normal distribution it means middle.

If numbers aren't normally distributed then there can't be a median.

Andy_L

lvader wrote: »

Take the range of incomes that covers around 99.9% of working people, i.e. ignore the very low and very top incomes. Divide the range equally into low, medium and high. The middle bit is what I intend as middle income. It has nothing to do with how many people are in each section.

I can only easily find numbers for the top & bottom 0.1% not 0.05, so using them gives us a top of just over £350k. At the bottom losing 0.1% still leaves us with NMW, so about£12k.
Applying your formula gives us a middle income of £124k - £237k. Do you honestly think that's a useful definition of "middle income"? It's also very different to your £30-60k concept of middle income

CLAPTON

Generali wrote: »

Median only works for a normal distribution. For a normal distribution it means middle.

If numbers aren't normally distributed then there can't be a median.

er.............................no