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Personal Income in Australia

Latest release

Regional data on the number of income earners, amounts received, and the distribution of income

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Reference period
2021-22 financial year

Key statistics

During 2021-22:

  • Total personal income was $1.19 trillion
  • Median personal income was $55,062, up 4.0% on 2020-21
  • Employee income comprised 82.5% of total personal income

Personal Income in Australia (PIA), along with Jobs in Australia (JIA), is one of two releases containing data from the Linked Employer-Employee Dataset (LEED). The Jobs and Income of Employed Persons, 2021-22 TableBuilder product contains more detailed data from the LEED.

Revisions due to the inclusion of non-lodgers

Non-lodgers are individuals who do not lodge a tax return. This can include employees who have employee income reported by their employers, persons who receive an income below certain levels (i.e. the tax-free threshold), or persons who derive their income from some Commonwealth of Australia Government pension, benefit and allowance payments that are exempt from income tax. Due to the unavailability of detailed age and sex data, non-lodgers who have employee income have previously been excluded from download tables 1, 2 and 4. 

From this release, detailed age and sex data will include non-lodgers with employee income in download tables 1,2 and 4 for all years from 2017-18 and 2021-22. As a result, key statistics, including total personal income, median total personal income, proportion of employee income in total personal income, sources of person income and Gini coefficients are revised relative to estimates for previous reference years, from 2017-18 to 2020-21.

Other standard revisions

Whilst the majority of revisions to data from 2017-18 to 2020-21 reflect the inclusion of non-lodgers, revisions to data also includes standard revisions. Standard revisions are the result of reprocessing historical data (i.e. with updated records or missing information) which usually result in very minor differences to previous years. 

Guide to labour statistics

To learn more about our different labour measures, their purpose and how to use them, see our Guide to labour statistics. It provides summary information on labour market topics including Earnings (similar to income) data.

Sources of personal income

  • For most people (80.1%), employee income was the main source of income, up slightly from 79.4% in 2020-21.
  • Median employee income was highest ($58,260, a 3.1% increase on the previous year), followed by superannuation income ($27,226, a 4.8% increase on the previous year).
  • Only 1.3% of people received superannuation income as their main source of income, down slightly from 1.5% in the previous year.

State and territory

  • The Australian Capital Territory recorded the highest median total income ($72,115) and Tasmania the lowest ($50,645)
  • Western Australia recorded the fastest growth rate since 2017-18 (18.1%), and New South Wales and South Australia the slowest (15.2%)
  • Of all the states and territories, the top 1% of earners received the greatest share of the state's total personal income in New South Wales (11.9%)
Distribution indicators for total personal income
 Median total incomeMedian total income growth rateIncome Share
 2021-22Last yearSince 2017-18Top 1% earnersTop 5% earnersTop 10% earners
Australia$55,0624.0%16.0%10.3%23.4%34.7%
New South Wales$55,1052.2%15.2%11.9%25.6%36.8%
Victoria$54,7084.8%16.4%10.3%23.4%34.7%
Queensland$54,0764.9%16.6%9.1%21.7%32.8%
South Australia$53,3534.7%15.2%8.3%20.7%31.6%
Western Australia$59,4265.3%18.1%9.7%22.4%33.7%
Tasmania$50,6455.2%16.9%8.5%20.6%31.3%
Northern Territory$65,3014.6%15.7%6.1%17.4%27.9%
Australian Capital Territory$72,1153.4%15.3%7.2%19.2%29.8%

Local Government Areas

In 2021-22, the Local Government Areas with the highest median total income in Australia were:

  • Ashburton in Western Australia ($105,628)
  • Roxby Downs in South Australia ($103,140)
  • Weipa in Queensland ($91,699)
  1. Excludes Local Government Areas with less than 1,000 earners.
  2. The Australian Capital Territory has no separate local governments.

Income inequality

The Survey of Income and Housing (SIH) provides the most comprehensive source of information for calculating Gini coefficients and measuring income inequality. As such, estimates from Household Income and Wealth, Australia should be used wherever possible, particularly at the Australia, State and Territory, and Greater Capital City Statistical Area levels. Gini coefficients from Personal Income in Australia should be considered complementary information, which provide insights for lower geographic levels. For more information about Gini coefficients, see the Methodology.

The Gini coefficient is a summary indicator, usually between 0 and 1 that indicates the degree of inequality among total incomes within a region. A value of 0 indicates that all earners reported the same amount of income in that region. Higher values represent relatively higher levels of income inequality. The income data reported in this release is market income and therefore can be negative. This is mainly due to losses for Owner Managers of Unincorporated Enterprises (OMUEs). For areas with large numbers of OMUEs reporting negative incomes, the Gini coefficients can exceed 1. The following Gini coefficients are for areas with 1,000 or more earners living within them and excludes the Australian Capital Territory, which does not have local government areas.

In 2021-22, the following Local Government Areas had the lowest income inequality (the lowest Gini coefficients) in their respective State/Territory:

  • Weipa in Queensland (0.363)
  • Palmerston in Northern Territory (0.382)
  • Roxby Downs in South Australia (0.383)

The highest income inequality (the highest Gini coefficients) in their respective State/Territory was:

  • Cottesloe in Western Australia (0.805)
  • Woollahra in New South Wales (0.703)
  • Barcaldine in Queensland (0.632)
Local government areas with the lowest Gini coefficients for each State and Territory, 2021-22
LGAState/TerritoryGini coefficientProportion of high earners (top quartile)(a)Income share received by top 10% of earnersMedian incomeMean income
CamdenNew South Wales0.42728.1%27.7%$63,076$72,305
MeltonVictoria0.42621.1%27.0%$55,118$62,523
WeipaQueensland0.36348.4%23.1%$91,699$94,645
Roxby DownsSouth Australia0.38354.5%23.7%$103,140$109,401
AshburtonWestern Australia0.39254.0%22.7%$105,628$104,864
GlenorchyTasmania0.40014.0%25.1%$51,294$54,889
PalmerstonNorthern Territory0.38230.3%24.7%$71,069$75,809
ACT(b)Australian Capital Territory0.44134.8%29.8%$72,115$84,557
  1. Proportion of earners in each LGA whose income is in the range of the top quartile, as calculated at the national level.
  2. The Australian Capital Territory has no separate local governments.
Local government areas with the highest Gini coefficients for each State and Territory, 2021-22
LGAState/TerritoryGini coefficientProportion of high earners (top quartile)(a)Income share received by top 10% of earnersMedian incomeMean income
WoollahraNew South Wales0.70347.2%59.1%$87,437$204,687
QueenscliffeVictoria0.62426.9%42.8%$48,746$76,085
BarcaldineQueensland0.63222.5%38.3%$53,460$64,910
WalkervilleSouth Australia0.60235.9%47.3%$66,533$117,339
CottesloeWestern Australia0.80545.1%72.6%$80,932$302,955
DorsetTasmania0.60513.0%46.7%$43,385$63,934
East ArnhemNorthern Territory0.5889.8%38.4%$17,092$33,284
ACT(b)Australian Capital Territory0.44134.8%29.8%$72,115$84,557
  1. Proportion of earners in each LGA whose income is in the range of the top quartile, as calculated at the national level.
  2. The Australian Capital Territory has no separate local governments. 

Migrants

In this release, 'migrants' refers to people who have arrived in Australia since January 2000, and includes permanent migrants who have become Australian citizens during this period. 

In 2021-22, 4.0 million migrants who lodged an individual tax return generated $284.1 billion in total personal income.

Most migrant taxpayers were permanent migrants (65.4% or 2.6 million people) who generated $204.2 billion (71.9%) of total migrant income.

  • $134.3 billion (47.3%) was reported by permanent skilled migrants (1.5 million people)
  • $46.7 billion (16.4%) was reported by permanent family migrants (769,200 people)
  • $15.9 billion (5.6%) was reported by other permanent migrants (206,200 people)
  • $7.3 billion (2.6%) was reported by permanent humanitarian migrants (159,200 people).

Over a third (33.4% or 1.3 million people) were temporary migrants generating $75.4 billion (26.5%) of total migrant income.

For each visa group, employee income was the main source of income, making up at least 75% of total migrant income received.

Total income by visa group, 2021-22
Visa groupEarners (persons)Total income ($)
Permanent visas  
          Permanent skilled1,500,000134,345,192,200
          Family769,20046,702,513,300
          Humanitarian159,2007,324,611,500
          Permanent other206,20015,853,591,500
Total permanent 2,634,600204,225,908,500
Temporary visas  
          Temporary skilled72,3007,005,488,900
          Student247,2006,594,562,600
          Working holiday maker39,400945,336,400
          Temporary other69,3003,137,731,500
          Bridging visas312,20015,302,095,300
          Provisional84,1004,205,645,300
          NZ citizen (subclass 444)520,00038,176,535,300
Total temporary 1,344,60075,367,395,300
          Australian citizen49,400 4,484,585,500 
Total4,028,600284,077,889,300

For permanent migrants, of their total income:

  • skilled migrants had the highest proportion of employee income (90.7%)
  • humanitarian migrants had the highest proportion of own unincorporated business income (9.6%)
  • other permanent migrants had the highest proportion of investment income (15.2%).

For temporary migrants, of their total income:

  • 90.4% was employee income
  • 6.1% was own unincorporated business income
  • 2.9% was investment income.

Note: These percentages do not add to 100 as total income also includes superannuation and annuities income and other income.

Data downloads

Table 1 - Total income, earners and summary statistics by geography, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
Download xlsx [980.76 KB]

Table 2 - Total income distribution by geography, 2021-22

Data files
Download xlsx [557.75 KB]

Table 3 - Employee income, earners and summary statistics by geography, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
Download xlsx [1.05 MB]

Table 4 - Employee income, earners and summary statistics by age group, sex and geography, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
Download xlsx [1.52 MB]

Table 5 - Investment income, earners and summary statistics by geography, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
Download xlsx [954.93 KB]

Table 6 - Own unincorporated business income, earners and summary statistics by geography, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
Download xlsx [980.74 KB]

Table 7 - Superannuation income, earners and summary statistics by geography, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
Download xlsx [949.5 KB]

Table 8 - Summary statistics by Greater Capital City Statistical Areas, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
Download xlsx [80.36 KB]

Table 9 - Migrants, Total income by arrival group, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
Download xlsx [1.46 MB]

Table 10 - Migrants, Employee income by arrival group , 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
Download xlsx [1.45 MB]

Table 11 - Migrants, Investment income by arrival group, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
Download xlsx [1.32 MB]

Table 12 - Migrants, Own unincorporated business income, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Data files
Download xlsx [1.38 MB]

All data cubes

Data files
Download zip [12.32 MB]

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6524.0.55.002.

Methodology

Personal Income in Australia methodology, 2021-22 financial year

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