Wealth is measured in many different ways, with earnings, expenses, taxes, and living costs all contributing to overall wealth and financial happiness. Additionally, working less for more money can indicate a good place to work and a wealthier existence.
But where in the world has the best working environment and benefits? We've delved into the data on a number of work-related financial indicators in many countries across the globe, to reveal the places where you can get the best perks for your hard work.
Switzerland is the highest-scoring country with a total wealth score of 9.19, more than 1 higher than second place, and over 4 higher than the average score of 5.02. Switzerland has the highest average annual salary, as well as the highest average pension assets per person.
The USA comes in second place as it achieved an overall score of just higher than 7.8/10. Americans enjoy an average salary of over $64,000 per year, and only have a combined tax rate of around 58%.
Iceland is the third-best performing country, although its score is far lower than Switzerland. Icelandic citizens benefit from high average pension assets (over $130,000), and a low amount of average annual working hours. However, tax rates in the country are very high.
Scandinavian nation Norway has incredibly high average wages at over $78,000, they also have the third-lowest average working hours, which helps them achieve an overall score of just 0.5 lower than Iceland. Norway is let down by having much lower average pension assets than the other nations in the top five.
Although Canada is not one of the highest-ranking countries for any one of the four categories, it is consistently high scoring across the board. Consequently, the North American nation achieved an overall score of 7.23.
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The average working hours of 38 of the countries of the world were identified, of these, the average working hours are 47.8 hours per week. This equates to 1,750 hours a year, or 6.84 hours per working day.
Countries with the lowest average working hours
Average weekly working hours
Europe is the part of the world where workers have the easiest time in terms of average hours worked, as nine out of the top ten ranking nations are situated in Europe, the only exception being ninth-placed Uruguay. Germans work the least on average, 37 hours a week, this is equivalent to under 5.3 hours a day, and just over 1,350 a year.
Countries with the highest average working hours
Average weekly working hours
At the other end of the spectrum, Europe is completely absent in the top three. Central America dominates the top of these rankings, as South Korea is the only outlier in the top trio. Mexicans work the most on average, with 61.7 hours per week, or 8.81 hours per day.
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The average income for people living in 38 countries of the world has been studied, and it was found that the average wage is $37,734 per year, ranging between over $82,000, and less than $6,000 per year.
Countries with the highest average wages
Monthly income
The highest average wages are found in the small prosperous alpine nation of Switzerland, the average income is over $225 a day, equivalent to more than $6,800 a month, and north of $82,000 a year. Second and third place belongs to Luxembourg and Norway, where they earn slightly less per month.
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Lots of countries have numerous unique taxes that are imposed upon their citizens, as a result, it can be hard to compare tax rates from country to country. Therefore, we have chosen to study the rate of three taxes shared by 37 countries; income tax, sales tax, and corporate tax. By combining the percentage rates for each one, we have got a final total out of 300% for each country, the average rate is 82.14%.
Countries with the lowest combined tax rates
Combined taxes
Hungary is the state with the lowest combined levels of tax, topping out at 51%. Hungary only has a 9% corporate tax rate, and 15% income tax (these are both the lowest of the countries studied). Lithuania came second with a combined tax rate of 56%, and the USA ranked third with a combined tax rate of 58%.
Countries with the highest combined tax rates
Combined taxes
The Scandinavian nation Denmark is the highest taxing country in the world, with 102% tax rate combined. Most of this is due to a high-income tax rate of 55%, in conjunction with a 25% sales tax and a 22% corporate tax rate. Austria and Finland both have a combined tax rate of 100%, to rank as the joint second highest taxing countries.
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To discover the average pension assets per person, we took the total pension assets for each country and divided it by the population to see how much everyone would receive if it was shared evenly. Out of nearly 40 nations with available data, the average total pension assets was over $901 billion, with over $22,000 per person.
Countries with the lowest average pension assets per
Average individual pension assets
The lowest amount per person is in Greece, where there is less than $200 in average individual pension assets. In total there is over $2 billion in total pension assets in Greexe, unfortunately, there are also over 10 million people living there.
Countries with the highest average pension assets per
Average individual pension assets
The highest average pension assets per person are found in Switzerland, where on average every citizen has over $137,000, this is around $115,000 more than the global average. Only two other countries have average individual pension assets higher than $100,000, and they are second and third-ranking Iceland and the Netherlands.
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Working hours data was sourced from Our World in Data.
Average salary data was sourced from WorldData.info.
The tax rate was sourced from World Population Review..
Pension data was sourced from OECD data.
Only OECD nations were used in the data for consistency and compatibility.
For the combined score, the 50 countries that had data for all four categories were combined, and an overall score out of ten for each factor, before an average of these scores was taken.
