The thing about GDP per capita is that it's heavily weighted with richer incomes. For example, you see American cities with higher GDP per capita in their respective metropolitan areas, but they tend to have a higher cost of living and poverty rates compared to Canadian cities. For example before moving back to Montreal I lived in Miami, which has a lower GDP per capita than Detroit (city vs city), and one of the highest poverty rates, yet it increases in the Metro due to an abundance of rich people living there. So we may have a GDP per capita of ~40K USD but relative to our C.O.L you're well off. This is something we have discussed in my developmental economics class.