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High incomes in Barents Russia

Street in Salekhard in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, the region in Russia with the highest median income.

In all of the five regions of Russia that are part of the Barents Region, workers have higher median incomes than in Russia as a whole.

Location

Nenets Autonomous District is the region in Russian with the second highest median income of all of Russia’s 83 regions, according to a survey by RIA Novosti. The median income in the district is 50,400 rubles per month, whereas the median for the whole of Russia is 21,300 rubles.

Nenets is only surpassed by the oil-rich Yamalo-Nenetsky District, where the median monthly income amounts to 52,400 rubles.

In Nenets Autonomous District, only 1.6% of the working population has an income of less than 9,000 rubles per month, whereas the average for Russia is 12.8%. As much as 25.0% of workers in Nenets have an income of more than 75,000 rubles per month. The average here for Russia is 4.7%.

Also the other Barents regions of Russia have considerable higher incomes compared to Russia as a whole.

In Murmansk Oblast the median income is 35,200 rubles per month. Only 0.3% has incomes lower than 9,000 rubles per month, which is the second lowest share of all of Russia’s regions. Only in Kamchatka there are fewer low-paid people (0.1%).  10.7% of the working population in Murmansk has incomes of more than 75,000 rubles per month.

The “median” income divides the working population into two equal segments with the first half earning less than the median income and the other half earning more. This is considered by many statisticians to be a better indicator than the average income as it is not dramatically affected by unusually high or low values.

In the Republic of Komi the median income amounts to 30,300 rubles per month. 5.0% earn less than 9,000 rubles per month, while 7.4% of the workers receive more than 75,000 on their paycheck.

In Arkhangelsk the median monthly income is 24,300 rubles. 8.1% has incomes lower than 9,000 rubles, while 5.9% earn more than 75,000.

The Republic of Karelia is the last of the Barents regions on the ranking, but is still ranked as number 23 of all of Russia’s 83 regions. In Karelia the median income is 22,300 rubles per month. 9.1% earn less than 9,000 and 3.6% more than 75,000.  

Russia has the highest level of wealth inequality in the world, save for a few Caribbean islands, the Credit Suisse’s 2013 Global Wealth Report asserts. According to the report, 110 Russian billionaires command 35 percent of the nation’s wealth, while worldwide, billionaires account for 1 to 2 percent of total household wealth.