The nominal income for the country’s poorest population group has posted the biggest decline on record in the first quarter.  

Statistics Korea said on Thursday that the monthly nominal income for the bottom 20 percent stood at one-point-28 million won on average in the January-March period, down eight percent from the same period last year. 

It is the steepest on-year decrease since the agency began compiling related data in 2003. 

The top 20 percent, however, earned ten-million-151-thousand won worth of nominal income each month in the first quarter on average. It is nine-point-three percent more than what they reaped a year earlier, which is the highest growth for the first quarter. 

This growth contributed to worsening income disparity with the agency's income equality index falling to a record low in the first quarter.  

Income per household continued to rise with households with at least two members posting a four-million-763-thousand won in average monthly nominal income in the first quarter, up three-point-seven percent from the same period last year. 

Their real income increased two-point-four percent during the period, extending a growth to the second consecutive quarter.