Net National Income (NNI) consists of employee compensation and mixed income for self-employed individuals (including social contributions for both fields) received by households, rental income for homeowner households (including imputed rents benefiting owner-occupants), resident business profits, net taxes on products and production received by public administrations, and net financial income received from the rest of the world (interest, dividends, and investment income received by resident units, minus those paid to non-resident units). Unlike Gross National Income (GNI), NNI excludes capital depreciation related to infrastructure, housing, and equipment. GNI equals Gross Domestic Product (GDP) minus primary income paid to non-resident economic units plus primary income received from the rest of the world by resident units.

To compare living standards for households of different sizes or compositions, income is divided by the number of consumption units (CUs). These are generally calculated as follows: 1 CU for the household’s first adult, 0.5 CU for each additional person aged 14 or older, and 0.3 CU for children under 14. This equivalence scale (known as the OECD scale) accounts for economies of scale within households.

NNI can be distributed across households using national accounts: assigned to households before any redistribution mechanisms, it constitutes extended primary income. Its components are allocated across households based on assumptions and microeconomic data.

In a ranked distribution, the median divides the distribution into two equal parts. Thus, for a wage distribution, 50% of wages fall below the median, and 50% are above. Deciles are the values dividing this distribution into ten equal parts. Individuals ranked in this way belong to different deciles of living standards. Quintiles divide a distribution into five equal parts, called quintiles and denoted as Q1 to Q5.

In the monetary sense of redistribution, the usual standard of living equals the household’s (usual) disposable income divided by the number of consumption units (CUs). The standard of living is thus the same for all individuals within a given household.

Starting from this extended primary income, public transfers (taxes, social contributions, social benefits, public expenditures) adjust household incomes to result in the extended standard of living after transfers. Households with a post-transfer income (extended standard of living) higher than their pre-transfer income (extended primary income) are considered net beneficiaries, and net contributors in the opposite case.

Direct levies for households include income taxes (IR, CSG) and wealth taxes as well as social contributions. In a broader sense, a levy is a transfer paid by households to public administrations and non-profit institutions serving households (NPISHs).

Monetary social benefits correspond to replacement income (pensions, unemployment benefits, daily allowances and annuities following work accidents and occupational illnesses), minimum social benefits, and other social benefits (family allowances, activity bonuses). They do not include housing benefits, which are recorded as in-kind transfers in national accounting. In a broad sense, a benefit is a transfer received by households, either in cash (monetary) or "in-kind," meaning provided directly or through reimbursements by public administrations.

Monetary transfers refer to direct levies and monetary social benefits (family benefits, minimum social benefits, replacement income such as pensions, unemployment benefits, disability pensions, and sick leave benefits). Conversely, non-monetary transfers include all other transfers involved in extended redistribution, including the sum of in-kind transfers, collective expenditures, and smaller transfers like public administration savings and NPISH income distribution balances.

Social transfers in-kind correspond to individual goods and services provided to households free of charge or at economically insignificant prices by public administrations and NPISHs, whether these goods and services were market-purchased or produced on a non-market basis. This category includes social security reimbursements, other social security benefits in-kind, social assistance benefits in-kind, and transfers of individual non-market goods and services.

Collective expenditures refer to non-assignable public services. Effective collective consumption (P42) comprises public goods and services whose benefits cannot be assigned to a particular household. It benefits the entire community or large sections of society (defense, police, justice, collective facilities, regulation, etc.). Collective consumption is financed by public administrations (S13).

Net disposable income (NDI), unlike extended primary income, does not include primary income from other sectors such as undistributed business profits for households or taxes and subsidies on products and production received by public administrations. It includes direct levies and monetary social benefits and income directly received by households. NDI corresponds to the income available to households for consumption and net savings.

Usual disposable income is the microeconomic concept measuring household income available for consumption and savings. It includes activity income net of social contributions, unemployment benefits, pensions, property income (rental and financial), and other social benefits, net of direct taxes (income tax, housing tax, general social contribution – CSG, social debt reduction contribution – CRDS, and social levies on wealth income). It excludes the monetary equivalent of the economic advantage from owning one’s main residence (imputed rents).

Imputed rents for homeowner households refer to the rental service homeowners provide themselves by owning their residence: it represents the rent they would pay if they were tenants of the home they occupy.