Australia has always lauded its working class culture, and the subsequent rise of the middle class, but the very nature of society is changing dramatically. In fact, we’re currently experiencing the biggest gap in wealth the country has ever seen.
New research by social researchers McCrindle, based on the latest analysis of the Australian Bureau of Statistics wealth and income data, breaks down the annual household income by quintiles of two million of Australia’s 10 million households. While the average household earns just over $107,000 annually, the top 20% earns more than twice that amount while the bottom 20% take home around one-fifth of the average at just . In other words, the wealth of the highest quintile households on average is 71 times that of the lowest quintile households.
Using the Gini coefficient measure of income spread — with 0 being perfect equality and 1 being total inequality — Australia is facing the most unequal level ever seen, at 0.446 compared to 0.417 in the mid 1990s. In the 20 years since, average household gross incomes have increased 60% from $66,196 to $107,276 today, while over the same period, incomes of the highest quintile have increased by 74% from $149,552 to $260,104. The details are below.
Infographic: McCrindle.