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[–] rwbj ago 

Median. The one you never used in school because it's so absurdly simple. You have 9 items? Put them in order and the median is the 5th one. If you have 10 items it's the average of the 5th and the 6th. So for instance the median personal income in the US is $27,851. Simple and informative. 50% of people earn less than that, 50% earn more, with most people falling pretty close to it.

It's interesting that most countries choose to instead proffer relatively useless stats. In lieu of this stat, the most meaningful one there is, we get per capita wages so we get to factor in the billionaires to make things seem better and then on top of that it's often per capita household earnings which further multiply the earnings. That's why you'll hear things like the average American earning $53,000 even though in reality that's nearly twice as much as the real figure.