Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

INCOME ITEMS

The person level records contain the following information on income:

Basic CURF

• source(s) of personal cash income (SINCHHM); and
• main source of personal cash income (MSRCINCC).

Expanded CURF

• personal gross weekly cash income in deciles (INCDECPN);
• personal gross weekly cash income in continuous perturbed dollar amounts (WINCCEX);
• source(s) of personal cash income (SINCHHM); and
• main source of personal cash income (MSRCINCC).

The household level records contain information derived from the income of all persons in the household, aged 15 years and over:

Basic CURF

• gross weekly equivalised cash income of households in deciles (INCDECEH); and
• sources of cash income of households (INCSRCH).

Expanded CURF

• gross weekly cash income of households in deciles (INCWKHHD);
• gross weekly cash income of households in continuous perturbed dollar amounts (WINCPHX);
• gross weekly equivalised cash income of households in deciles (INCDECEH);
• gross weekly equivalised cash income of households in continuous perturbed dollar amounts (INCWKHEX); and
• sources of cash income of households (INCSRCH).

When analysing income at the person and household level, it is necessary to exclude the special codes (eg 'not stated'). The data item list provides the relevant values.


Income not reported

If more than one contributing income item at the person level has a value of 'Not known', then totals derived from these items, such as 'Gross weekly personal income' are also set to 'Not known', as it was not possible to derive an accurate total. Similarly, if one or more of the contributing person records in a household has a value of 'Not known', then household income and derived income deciles are set to 'Not known/no income reported'. Care should be taken to exclude these codes when categorising higher income values, and when calculating means, medians and other summary statistics.


Calculating income deciles

Deciles are groupings that result from ranking either all households or all persons in the population in ascending order according to some characteristic, such as income, and then dividing the population into 10 equal groups, each comprising 10% of the estimated population. The first decile contains the bottom 10%, the second decile contains the next 10% and so on.

To assist in the use and interpretation of income deciles at the person or household level, it is necessary to exclude the reserved values of:

• 00 for Not applicable;
• 98 for Not stated; and
• 99 for Not known.

Refer to 'Income not reported' for more information on the treatment of 'Not known or not stated' values.

The following table provides the decile ranges for gross weekly cash income of persons (INCDECPN) and of households (INCWKHHD):

2. GROSS WEEKLY CASH INCOME OF PERSONS AND HOUSEHOLDS, by decile ranges
	Personal income	Household income
Decile	$	$
1st	< 152	< 399
2nd	153 - 229	399 - 576
3rd	230 - 299	577 - 843
4th	300 - 432	844 -1 084
5th	433 - 599	1 085 -1 360
6th	600 - 760	1 361 -1 642
7th	761 - 958	1 643 -2 017
8th	959 -1 188	2 018 -2 539
9th	1 189 -1 639	2 540 -3 321
10th	>1 640	>3 321

Gross weekly equivalised income of households

Equivalised household income provides an indication of the economic resources available to each member of a household. It can be used for comparing the situation of individuals, as well as comparing the situation of households. Equivalence scales are used to make adjustments to the actual incomes of households so that households of differing sizes and compositions are able to be compared. The gross weekly equivalised income of households is expressed in:

• deciles (Basic and Expanded CURFs); and
• continuous perturbed dollar amounts (Expanded CURF only).

Equivalised income is calculated by deriving an equivalence factor according to the chosen equivalence scale, and then dividing income by the factor. The equivalence factor, derived using the 'modified OECD' equivalence scale, is determined by allocating the following points to each person in a household:

• the first adult in the household is given a weight of 1 point;
• each additional person 15 years or older is allocated 0.5 points; and
• each child under 15 years is allocated 0.3 points.

Equivalised household income is derived by dividing the total household income by a factor equal to the sum of the equivalence points allocated to the household members. The equivalised income of a lone person household is the same as its unequivalised income. The equivalised income of a household comprising more than one person lies between the total value and the per capita value of its unequivalised income.

When unequivalised household income is negative, such as when a loss is reported for an individual's unincorporated business or other investment income, and this loss is greater than any positive income from any other source, then equivalised household income is set to zero.

When analysing the gross weekly equivalised income of households, it is necessary to exclude the special codes (eg 'not stated'). The data item list provides the relevant values.

The following table provides the decile ranges for gross weekly equivalised income of households (INCDECEH):

3. GROSS WEEKLY EQUIVALISED INCOME OF HOUSEHOLDS, by decile ranges
	From	To
Decile	$	$
1st		<277
2nd	278	359
3rd	360	479
4th	480	613
5th	614	755
6th	756	897
7th	898	1 064
8th	1 065	1 303
9th	1 304	1 713
10th	>1 713

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