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Selected highlights: Differences between Australian men and women

While over 80% of Australian men and women reported they were satisfied with their lives, there are significant differences in their health, social and economic characteristics, and their work and family balance.

· Wealth: Women aged 55-64 have much less superannuation than men of the same age - an average of $196,409 compared with $310,145. However rates of home ownership are similar for this age group - 77% for men, and 79% for women

· Employment: Fewer women are in the labour force than men, and those in the labour force are more likely to be in part-time and casual employment, and more likely to be under-employed than men.

· Income: Women earn less overall, averaging a rate ratio of .89 of male earnings (non-managerial adult hourly ordinary time cash earnings).

· Female graduates earn less than male graduates overall, with median starting salaries of $56k and $60k respectively, and they earn less in 16 out of 19 key industries.

· More women than men attain a bachelor degree. Women are most likely to qualify in management, or society and culture, while men are most likely to qualify in engineering or architecture degrees.

· Risky levels of drinking are dropping for both men and women, but men are still more than twice as likely to exceed the drinking guidelines as women: 24% compared with 9%.

· While men are much more likely to be overweight, levels of obesity are similar for men and women. Women of all ages are more likely to be sedentary.

· Women are slightly more likely to suffer from mental or behavioural conditions, with young women having twice the rate of reported anxiety of young men. However, men are more than three times as likely to take their own lives.

· On average, women live longer than men (84.5 years compared to 80.5 years)

· Almost all primary parental care leave, for non-public sector employees, was taken by women (95%). Women employees in all sectors, however, were slightly more likely than men to be employed with no leave entitlements (23% compared with 20%)

· Twice as many women as men provide primary care to a person with disability. Of these women who are primary carers, 13% are employed full-time, 27% part-time, and 57% are not in the labour force.

· While men and women averaged the same hours for paid and unpaid work overall, men spent twice as long as women in paid work and women spent twice as long as men in unpaid work (particularly domestic activities and child care).

· The imprisonment rate for men is over ten times that of women (402.5 men per 100,000 compared with 35.2 women per 100,000)

· Sentenced female prisoners are more likely than sentenced male prisoners to be sentenced for illicit drug offences, fraud and theft. They are also slightly more likely to be sentenced for homicide. Sentenced male prisoners are more likely to be sentenced for acts intended to cause injury, sexual assault, unlawful entry with intent, and robbery.

· While men and women experience similar rates of physical or threatened violence (5.0% compared with 4.5%), women are nearly five times as likely to be sexually assaulted (155.4 women per 100,000 compared with 34.3 men per 100,000).

· While more women have tertiary qualifications, they are under-represented on boards and in parliament.

· There has been a significant increase in female appointments in the senior executive service of the Australian Public Service (an increase from 35% to 43% over the past decade).

· There was also an increase of female Federal Circuit Court Judges over this time, rising from 23% to 42%.

For more detail on these highlights, see the Insights pages by domain, and the data cubes via the downloads tab.