KEY FINDINGS

Estimates of Personal Income for Small Areas uses tax data to describe personal income and its distribution across Australia. A comprehensive range of income indicators can be compared across relatively small regional areas (including the Local Government Area level and Greater Capital City Statistical Area level in this summary, and Statistical Area levels 2, 3 and 4, which are also available in the datacubes).

It should be noted that some income earners are not represented in these statistics because they did not submit a tax return. This coverage gap is likely to include many individuals who earned below the tax-free threshold and many Government benefit recipients, therefore providing an incomplete picture of low income earners. This is important to consider when comparing estimates in this release with distribution-based measures from other statistical collections (for example the Gini coefficients, which will be higher in this release).

The Australian Bureau of Statistics acknowledges the invaluable support of the Australian Tax Office in compiling these statistics.


OVERVIEW OF PERSONAL INCOME IN AUSTRALIA

• In 2015-16, the total personal income of the 13.4 million persons who submitted a tax return was $827.9 billion.
• Median income was $47,692, an increase of 1.8 per cent on the previous financial year and an increase of 17 per cent since 2010-11.
• The Australian Capital Territory continued to record the highest mean income, although it also recorded one of the slowest growth rates over the six year period.
• South Australia had the slowest overall growth rate over the six year period.
• Western Australian growth has also slowed markedly in recent years. Over the six year period, 2015-16 saw Western Australia record its first year of negative year-on-year growth.
• The Northern Territory recorded the highest growth rate over the six year period, driven by very strong growth in the Greater Darwin area.
• Income inequality indicated by the Gini coefficient was highest in New South Wales and lowest in the Northern Territory.

A selection of income indicators are presented in Table 1, providing an overview of the distribution of income across Australia.

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	Median total income	Median income growth rate 2010-11 to 2015-16	Median income growth rate 2014-15 to 2015-16	INCOME SHARE			Gini coefficient
				Top 1% of earners	Top 5% of earners	Top 10% of earners
	$	%	%	%	%	%
Greater Sydney	50 724	17.4	2.3	11.9	25.7	36.6	0.503
Rest of New South Wales	43 557	17.8	2.6	7.3	19.9	31.2	0.471
New South Wales	48 085	17.9	2.6	10.9	24.3	35.3	0.496
Greater Melbourne	48 572	15.3	2.2	10.0	23.2	34.1	0.481
Rest of Victoria	42 019	15.6	1.5	7.0	19.6	30.7	0.467
Victoria	46 984	15.9	2.3	9.5	22.6	33.6	0.479
Greater Brisbane	49 482	16.9	1.8	8.7	21.6	32.5	0.464
Rest of Queensland	44 468	18.0	1.8	7.4	20.3	31.7	0.471
Queensland	46 869	17.5	1.8	8.2	21.1	32.1	0.468
Greater Adelaide	47 307	15.7	1.6	8.2	20.7	31.2	0.452
Rest of South Australia	41 778	14.4	1.0	6.4	19.0	30.3	0.463
South Australia	46 110	15.6	1.5	7.9	20.4	31.1	0.455
Greater Perth	53 200	17.2	-0.8	9.0	22.4	33.8	0.484
Rest of Western Australia	49 634	18.9	-1.3	6.4	19.1	30.9	0.479
Western Australia	52 504	17.6	-0.9	8.6	21.8	33.3	0.483
Greater Hobart	46 411	16.1	2.2	7.6	19.6	30.0	0.441
Rest of Tasmania	41 790	15.1	1.4	7.1	19.2	29.9	0.454
Tasmania	43 833	15.9	1.8	7.3	19.4	30.0	0.448
Greater Darwin	62 211	23.3	2.7	6.8	18.5	29.2	0.420
Rest of Northern Territory	54 315	18.8	4.9	5.2	16.0	26.3	0.406
Northern Territory	59 466	21.1	2.5	6.5	18.2	28.8	0.420
Australian Capital Territory	63 061	15.7	2.6	6.5	18.3	28.7	0.421
Australia	47 692	17.0	1.8	9.5	22.7	33.8	0.484

SOURCES OF PERSONAL INCOME

Overall, employee income continues to make the highest contribution to total personal income in Australia, at 77 per cent.

South Australia recorded the lowest relative contribution of employee income, at 74 per cent of total income recorded for South Australia in 2015-16. This pattern is consistent over time, and is countered by the relatively high contributions of all other income types to South Australia's total income levels.

In 2015-16, Own unincorporated business income contributed more to South Australia's total personal income than in any other state (8.5%, compared to 7.8% Australia-wide). Australian Capital Territory continued to record the lowest Own unincorporated business income contribution, at only 3.9 per cent of its total income.

Table 2 details the median income by source from 2010-11 to 2015-16.

	MEDIAN INCOME
	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
	$	$	$	$	$	$
Employee	41 181	43 173	44 644	45 725	46 999	48 413
Own unincorporated business	10 064	10 303	10 171	10 953	11 581	11 669
Investment	407	392	360	337	293	242
Superannuation & annuities	17 169	18 184	18 003	18 857	19 736	19 933
Total Income1	40 770	42 987	44 778	45 828	46 854	47 692

¹ Total income from all sources excluding Government pensions and allowances, and including Other income.


REGIONAL TOTAL MEDIAN PERSONAL INCOME

The Local Government Area (LGA) with the highest median total income was Ashburton within the Pilbara region of Western Australia ($100,665). Since the previous year, the top five highest median income areas in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia have remained stable.

Woden Valley rose from fifth to third in the Australian Capital Territory rankings, and Alice Springs nudged West Arnhem out of the Northern Territory's top five. Queensland and Tasmania's top five were shuffled around by Bulloo and King Island which both entered the top five in 2015-16, while Gladstone (Queensland) and West Coast (Tasmania) both dropped out of the top ranks from fourth and second place, respectively.

Table 3 lists the five LGAs within each state and territory with the highest median total income in 2015-16. Map 1 illustrates the distribution of median income throughout LGAs across the country.

New South Wales	Victoria	Queensland	South Australia
Woollahra (A) $74 076	Stonnington (C) $60 483	Weipa (T) $81 123	Roxby Downs (M) $82 195
Mosman (A) $74 068	Port Phillip (C) $60 274	Mount Isa (C) $68 995	Walkerville (M) $60 198
North Sydney (A) $72 915	Yarra (C) $59 284	Isaac (R) $68 564	Unley (C) $55 452
Hunters Hill (A) $69 912	Bayside (C) $58 909	Bulloo (S) $61 568	Burnside (C) $55 059
Lane Cove (A) $67 210	Boroondara (C) $57 306	Cloncurry (S) $59 778	Whyalla (C) $52 980
Western Australia	Tasmania	Northern Territory	Australian Capital Territory1
Ashburton (S) $100 665	Hobart (C) $48 253	Palmerston (C) $66 171	South Canberra $78 357
Peppermint Grove (S) $89 795	Clarence (C) $47 210	Litchfield (M) $62 218	Molonglo $74 863
Port Hedland (T) $82 349	Kingborough (M) $47 116	Darwin (C) $60 354	Woden Valley $64 254
Karratha (C) $81 933	King Island (M) $45 322	Wagait (S) $60 000	North Canberra $63 962
East Pilbara (S) $76 575	Brighton (M) $45 158	Alice Springs (T) $55 962	Gungahlin $63 906

¹The Australian Capital Territory does not have Local Government Areas, so information is presented at the Statistical Area 3 level of the Australian Statistical Geography Standard


REGIONAL TOTAL PERSONAL INCOME GROWTH

Of the regions with more than one thousand earners, the highest income growth since 2010-11 occurred in the Torres region of Queensland, with median total income increasing by 25 per cent. This region also demonstrated the highest year-on-year growth at 30 per cent. Tables 4 and 5 provide further details of the highest growing regions. Income growth by LGAs is shown in Map 2.

		Median Total Income 2010-11	Median Total Income 2015-16	Change from 2010-11
		$	$	%
Torres (S)	Queensland	40 196	53 597	25.0
Murrumbidgee (A)	New South Wales	32 430	43 211	24.9
Ashburton (S)	Western Australia	77 310	100 665	23.2
Cottesloe (T)	Western Australia	56 699	73 724	23.1
Gunnedah (A)	New South Wales	35 267	45 455	22.4

		Median Total Income 2014-15	Median Total Income 2015-16	Change from 2014-15
		$	$	%
Gwydir (A)	New South Wales	34 193	38 152	10.4
Walgett (A)	New South Wales	32 219	35 739	9.8
North Burnett (R)	Queensland	29 964	32 949	9.1
Balonne (S)	Queensland	39 330	43 037	8.6
Glen Innes Severn (A)	New South Wales	31 261	34 058	8.2

INCOME INEQUALITY - GINI COEFFICIENT

The Gini coefficient is a summary indicator between 0 and 1 which measures the degree of inequality of total income within a region. A value of 0 indicates that all earners reported the same amount of income in that region, and higher values represent relatively higher income inequality.

Underlying data limitations mean that the Gini coefficients in this publication can't be compared with the Gini coefficients produced in other publications. The measures in this release provide a useful view of change in income inequality in a region over time, and they also provide an informative comparison of income inequality across regions, which are frequent and detailed. The coefficients are calculated from gross personal income and not from equivalised disposable income, and are drawn from data with coverage limitations (approximately 10% of employees don’t need to submit a tax return, and persons aged 60 years and over are generally under-represented in tax data). For national and state and territory estimates, users are encouraged to refer to Household Income and Wealth, Australia, 2015-16 (cat. no. 6523.0). Gini coefficients in this publication are based on data from the ABS Survey of Income and Housing (SIH), which includes estimates of current income as well as estimates of annual income with respect to the previous financial year.

In 2015-16, Australia had a Gini coefficient of 0.484, with values for the states and territories ranging from 0.496 in New South Wales to 0.420 in the Northern Territory. Of the areas with greater than one thousand earners, Table 6 shows the five LGAs with the lowest income inequality in Australia. In addition to relatively low inequality, Molonglo and Palmerston have a high proportion of earners in the top quartile.

		Gini coefficient	Proportion of high earners	Proportion of region's income held by the top 10% of earners	Mean income
			%	%	$
Molonglo	Australian Capital Territory2	0.339	44.1	23.7	78 284
Brighton (M)	Tasmania	0.364	14.1	23.7	48 241
Glenorchy (C)	Tasmania	0.378	13.8	24.2	47 233
Palmerston (C)	Northern Territory	0.378	36.5	26.2	74 275
Playford (C)	South Australia	0.379	12.9	24.6	46 780

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¹Proportion of earners in the top quartile (with income of $79,760 or more)
²The Australian Capital Territory does not have Local Government Areas. For the ACT, information at the Statistical Area 3 level of the Australian Statistical Geography Standard is included in LGA analysis


Table 7 shows the five LGAs with the highest Gini coefficients. Mosman and Woollahra have the highest mean incomes in Australia, with most of the region's income held by the top ten per cent of earners. Map 3 shows the distribution of Gini coefficient values by LGA.

		Gini coefficient	Proportion of high earners	Proportion of region's income held by the top 10% of earners	Mean income
			%	%	$
York (S)	Western Australia	0.664	22.3	45.7	56 516
Mosman (A)	New South Wales	0.664	46.9	55.0	162 272
Woollahra (A)	New South Wales	0.659	46.9	55.1	159 580
Mosman Park (T)	Western Australia	0.649	40.7	52.3	126 597
Buloke (S)	Victoria	0.639	10.8	34.3	34 346

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