Australian National Accounts: Distribution of Household Income, Consumption and Wealth methodology

Latest release

Reference period

2021-22 financial year

Released

13/12/2022

Next release Unknown

Overview of methodology for individual data points

The methodology used to compile the data in this release is based on the method (summarised below) in the Information Paper: Australian National Accounts, Distribution of Household Income, Consumption and Wealth, 2009-10.

All distributional data points in the release are benchmarked to current price household estimates for income, consumption and wealth from the Australian System of National Accounts, 2021-22.

For biennial years 2003-04 to 2019-20, estimates are distributed for five household distributional indicators based on ABS household surveys:

Survey of Income and Housing (SIH) – biennial years from 2003-04 to 2019-20
ABS Household Expenditure Survey (HES) – 2003-04, 2009-10 and 2015-16

The five household distributional indicators are: main source of income; equivalised disposable income quintiles; household composition; age of household reference person; and equivalised net wealth quintiles.

Estimates for non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH) included in the household sector in Australian System of National Accounts (ASNA) are removed.

The household national accounts estimates for a particular year (macro) and the corresponding ABS household survey estimates (micro) were compared and coverage ratios (micro/macro) calculated. For some items, the macro and/or micro estimates were adjusted to derive the most relevant common scope for comparison. The corresponding micro household items were sub sectored into the following household groups: main source of income; equivalised disposable income quintiles; household composition; age of household reference person; and equivalised net worth quintiles.

The ASNA household components and aggregates were distributed to the five household groups:

directly using the distribution of the equivalent micro component when the coverage ratio was considered adequate, for example, social assistance benefits
indirectly by a related micro distribution when there was no direct micro distribution information for the national accounts item, for example the national accounts item non-life insurance claims were distributed using the micro distribution for total insurance premiums paid
indirectly by creating a micro distribution ('synthesised') based on related micro distribution, for example, synthesised micro distribution was created for the national accounts item financial intermediation services indirectly measured (FISIM) for consumer loans
by the corresponding aggregate distribution for income (disposable income), consumption (final consumption expenditure), assets (total assets) and liabilities (total liabilities), when micro distributions either directly or indirectly are not available. For these national accounts items, the inclusion or exclusion of the item did not impact on the distribution of the national accounts aggregates

Very remote communities (VRC) and people living in non-private dwellings (NPD) populations that were out of scope of the micro surveys were excluded from the ASNA estimates and distributed separately using data from the 2006, 2011 and 2016 ABS Census of Population and Housing. These distributions were then added to the ASNA distributions based on the micro surveys to obtain the final distribution of the ASNA household income, consumption and wealth estimates.

For 2020-21 and 2021-22, the release includes extrapolated and modelled estimates for household distributional data for income, consumption and wealth for household indicators equivalised disposable income quintiles and age of household reference person. The models use unit record data from SIH 2017-18 and 2019-20 plus administrative data sources from government agencies and other ABS collections. For full list of sources used in the models, see the ‘Recent year models’ section below.

The October 2014, November 2015 and July 2021 issues describe improvements to the original method, which include:

models used to estimate gaps in micro distributional data, interpolation and extrapolation
improvements to specific coverage (micro/macro) ratios
method in the construction of a time series
how data captures demographic shifts
strength and weakness of the time series
incremental improvements to the original method

Users are encouraged to refer to these releases to obtain a complete understanding of the methodology.

Time series presentation

Periodicity

Time series presented in this release:

household income, consumption, gross saving and wealth from 2003-04 to 2019-20 (biennial), 2020-21 and 2021-22 for equivalised disposable income quintiles and age of household reference person
household income, consumption, gross saving and wealth from 2003-04 to 2019-20 (biennial) for household groups: main source of income; equivalised disposable income quintiles; household composition; age of household reference person; and equivalised net worth quintiles

The release includes 13 data tables:

current price household estimates for income, consumption and wealth distributed by main source of income; equivalised income quintiles; household composition; age of reference person in household; and equivalised net worth quintiles (Table 1)
share of total household estimates for income, consumption and wealth distributed by main source of income; equivalised income quintiles; household composition; age of reference person in household; and equivalised net worth quintiles (Table 2)
that analyse how household distributional groups have contributed to total growth of income, consumption and wealth. The table includes demographic shifts such as the increase in the number of households in a particular household group, as they are an important driver to total growth (Table 9)
that remove demographic shifts; the method used in this release is dollars per household (Tables 3 and 4)
that analyse per household growth in income, consumption and wealth (Table 10)
that analyse contributions by component (income, consumption and net worth) to a household group's per household growth of gross disposable income, household final consumption expenditure, net worth and actual final consumption (Tables 5 to 8)
that analyse the impacts of redistribution policies such as income tax, social assistance benefits and social transfers in kind, and the effectiveness of the policies over time (Table 11)
coverage ratios of micro and macro estimates (Table 12)
separation of the financial intermediation services indirectly measured (FISIM) component of interest receivable and interest payable (Table 13)

Specifically, in this release:

Tables 1,2,3,4 and 11 include estimates for income, consumption, gross saving and wealth for 2020-21 and 2021-22 for equivalised disposable income quintiles and age of household reference person. Tables do not include any estimates for 2020-21 and 2021-22 by household indicators main source of income, household composition, and equivalised net wealth quintiles
Tables 5,6,7,8,9 and 10 include analysis for all relevant items by all household indicators biennially and for the total 16-year period (2003-04 to 2019-20)
Tables 5,6,7,8,9 and 10 include analysis for equivalised disposable income quintiles and age of household reference person for 2019-20 to 2020-21 and 2020-21 to 2021-22 and for 2003-04 to 2020-21 and 2003-04 to 2021-22 for relevant income items, consumption items, gross saving and wealth items

Table 1 shows the availability of the micro source data used to construct the 2003-04 to 2019-20 data points.

Table 1: Availability of micro source data
Micro source data	2003-04	2005-06	2007-08	2009-10	2011-12	2013-14	2015-16	2017-18	2019-20
SIH - Income	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A
SIH - Wealth	A	A	NA	A	A	A	A	A	A
Social Transfers in Kind	A	NA	NA	A	A	A	A	NA	NA
HES - Consumption	A	NA	NA	A	NA	NA	A	NA	NA

A = Available
NA = Not available

Models used to estimate data gaps in micro distributional data

Two options of linear interpolation (extrapolation) were considered for this release:

three data point linear trend interpolation (extrapolation)
two data point average growth rate of the total household micro estimate, with the average growth applied to the average share over three data points of the household indicator (e.g., quintiles)

Both option (1) and (2) are simple methodologies, and work effectively if the historical data is stable over time and there are not large fluctuations between shares of the various indicators over time.

Option (1) was applied to interpolate (extrapolate) the micro distributional indicators for consumption for the years 2005-06, 2007-08, 2011-12, 2013-14, 2017-18 from HES. In general, it is assumed that consumption patterns of households tend to be relatively stable over time, and this method has the advantage of capturing the systematic pattern (i.e. movements up or down) of distributional information over time. The method for deriving estimates for 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 are discussed below.

Option (2) was applied to SIH to interpolate (extrapolate) the micro distributional indicators for wealth for the year 2007-08; social transfers in kind (STiK) for the years 2005-06, 2007-08 and 2019-20. This method has the advantage of not generating negative values, works adequately for when the distributed pattern is not linear over time and assumes that the shares of the distributional indicators are stable over time.

Census data is used to construct the distributional data for the VRC and NPD populations. Option (1) was applied to interpolate (extrapolate) Census data for the years 2003-04, 2007-08, 2009-10 and 2013-14. Census 2016 was used for 2015-16, 2017-18 and 2019-20. The total disposable income, total consumption and total net worth estimates for the NPD and VRC populations were approximately 3% of the total Australian aggregates of income, consumption and net worth for all data points. The impact of the methodology chosen to interpolate (extrapolate) would be minimal on the final Australian National Accounts distributional estimates.

Recent year models

Household Final Consumption Expenditure (HFCE)

Shares for all categories of HFCE were held relatively constant to 2017-18 for 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22, whilst also factoring in growth in the number of households within each indicator type. Extrapolating estimates using option (1) is only suitable when consumption patterns of households are assumed to be relatively stable over time. The impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on consumption made this assumption no longer valid from 2019-20 onwards.

Income and Wealth

Micro indicators were used to inform adjustments to extrapolated estimates for 2020-21 and 2021-22. The micro indicators were derived by integrating 2017-18 and 2019-20 SIH Micro Unit Record File (MURF) data with other data sources such as:

Department of Social Services (DSS), Australian Taxation Office and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority
other ABS information including

MURF data allows multiple matrices to be created that cross classify distributional indicators for various items (e.g., social benefit payments received by age of person and income quintile, employee income by income quintile by industry of employment and by age of person).

The matrices were used to model distributional impacts of economic events during the year (e.g., social assistant benefits, compensation of employees) by applying data from other sources (e.g., the number of pension recipients by age and type of pension from DSS, employee wages by industry from national accounts) to the MURF matrices.

Additional coherence adjustments were applied to align with economic information from external reports and from experts across ABS national account teams.

Number of households in population

For 2020-21 and 2021-22, the number of households in the population were estimated using Census data. For years up to 2019-20, the number of households is directly from the Survey of Income and Housing (SIH). The estimated number of households in 2020-21 was derived by:

Calculating the 5-year growth rate in the number of households between the 2016 Census and 2021 Census
The derivation of the number of households in 2020-21 replicated the 5-year growth rate of the Census data to the SIH household count data between 2015-16 and 2020-21.

The growth rate in the number of households between 2019-20 and the number of households in 2020-21 (both on a SIH basis) was used to derive the number of households in 2021-22. That is, a constant growth rate was assumed for 2019-20 to 2020-21, and 2020-21 to 2021-22. The proportion of households in each group (for equivalised income quintiles and age of reference) for both 2020-21 and 2021-22 were held constant to 2019-20.

Changing demographics over time

When distributional data across different years is compared, it is important to note that the change in the estimate is impacted by (a) changes in the household's income (consumption and wealth) and (b) change due to more households in the distributional group. To assist users to understand these demographic changes, Table 2 shows the proportion of households in each group over time.

Table 2: Proportion of households, by household indicator
		2003- 04	2005- 06	2007- 08	2009- 10	2011- 12	2013- 14	2015- 16	2017- 18	2019- 20	2020- 21	2021- 22
Total Number of Households		7954585	8160856	8327819	8664857	8912564	9048583	9246191	9554317	10016972	10106724	10197302
Main Source of Income (%)
	Wages & salaries	56.0	57.6	60.1	59.5	59.8	58.9	59.3	59.5	60.5	NA	NA
	Income from unincorporated business	8.1	8.0	8.2	7.8	7.3	8.6	7.7	8.0	7.3	NA	NA
	Property income & superannuation	8.6	8.8	8.4	7.9	8.5	8.5	9.2	8.1	8.8	NA	NA
	Government pensions & allowances	26.0	24.3	22.0	23.7	23.3	22.6	22.6	22.7	22.1	NA	NA
	Other	1.3	1.3	1.3	1.1	1.1	1.4	1.2	1.6	1.4	NA	NA
Household Composition (%)
	Lone person under 65	16.4	16.6	16.1	16.1	15.7	15.2	15.0	14.6	14.7	NA	NA
	Lone person 65 & over	10.7	10.8	10.6	10.3	10.8	11.1	11.5	11.9	12.3	NA	NA
	One parent with dependent children	6.7	6.7	6.0	6.2	5.7	5.8	5.5	5.2	5.9	NA	NA
	Couple only, reference person under 65	17.2	16.8	17.2	16.9	16.2	15.9	15.1	15.1	15.2	NA	NA
	Couple only, reference person 65 & over	8.3	8.3	8.6	8.6	9.0	9.2	9.8	9.9	10.5	NA	NA
	Two adults or more with dependent children	27.2	26.4	26.8	26.8	26.8	27.5	28.2	28.3	27.4	NA	NA
	Other	13.6	14.4	14.7	15.1	15.9	15.2	14.9	15.1	14.0	NA	NA
Age of Reference Person (years) (%)
	15-24	4.5	5.0	4.6	4.2	4.1	3.8	3.5	3.2	3.2	3.2	3.2
	25-34	17.8	17.2	16.3	16.4	16.0	16.4	16.0	16.3	15.7	15.7	15.7
	35-44	21.7	21.1	20.1	20.2	19.5	18.9	18.5	18.1	18.7	18.7	18.7
	45-54	20.2	19.9	20.2	19.9	19.9	19.9	19.5	19.2	18.4	18.4	18.4
	55-64	14.7	15.6	16.4	17.1	17.5	17.1	17.3	17.4	17.5	17.5	17.5
	65+	21.1	21.2	22.3	22.2	23.0	23.9	25.2	25.8	26.5	26.5	26.4
Equivalised Disposable Income Quintiles (%)
	Lowest	20.9	20.9	20.9	20.9	21.0	21.0	20.9	20.9	20.8	20.8	20.8
	Second	20.2	20.2	20.1	20.1	20.0	20.0	20.2	20.1	20.1	20.1	20.1
	Third	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7
	Fourth	19.6	19.6	19.6	19.6	19.6	19.6	19.6	19.6	19.6	19.6	19.6
	Highest	19.6	19.6	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7
Equivalised Disposable Net Worth Quintiles (%)
	Lowest	20.9	20.9	20.9	20.9	21.0	21.0	20.9	20.9	20.8	NA	NA
	Second	20.2	20.2	20.1	20.1	20.0	20.0	20.1	20.1	20.1	NA	NA
	Third	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	NA	NA
	Fourth	19.6	19.6	19.6	19.6	19.6	19.6	19.6	19.6	19.6	NA	NA
	Highest	19.6	19.6	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	19.7	NA	NA

NA = Not available

Revisions

Revisions of estimates from the previous release are due to:

the implementation of revised national accounts aggregates from Australian System of National Accounts, 2021-22
the implementation of revised national accounts data from Australian National Accounts: Finance and Wealth, June 2022, used to construct detailed components for the national accounts net worth aggregates
incorporation of final 2019-20 Survey of Income and Housing data
revisions to the distribution of land

Relevant ABS publications

Glossary

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Actual individual consumption

To allow for the fact that the consumption of goods and services by households may be paid for, in cash or in kind, by the general government sector an alternative measure of consumption called actual individual consumption has been defined. It is measured by first separating government final consumption expenditure (GFCE) into individual and collective consumption. Individual consumption refers to services that are provided by general government to households which are consumed individually, for example health and education. Collective consumption, on the other hand, relates to the provision of public services such as policing and defence. Household actual individual consumption is measured as household final consumption expenditure plus individual consumption within GFCE. General government actual consumption is measured as GFCE less individual consumption. Actual consumption is a particularly useful measure for international comparison since countries often have different systems for providing individual services.

Compensation of employees

The total remuneration, in cash or in kind, payable by an enterprise to an employee in return for work done by the employee during the accounting period. It is further classified into two sub-components: wages and salaries; and employers’ social contributions (payments by employers which are intended to secure for their employees the entitlement to social benefits, such as employer superannuation contributions).

Currency and deposits

Currency consists of notes and coins that are of fixed nominal values and are issued or authorised by the central bank or government. For Australia the currency asset refers solely to domestic currency. There is little foreign currency in general circulation, and significant holdings are classified as foreign deposits. Deposits include both transferable and other deposits. Transferable deposits comprise all deposits that are exchangeable for bank notes and coins on demand at par and without penalty or restriction, and directly usable for making payments by cheque, draft, direct debit/credit or other direct payment facility. Other deposits comprise all claims, other than transferable deposits, that are represented by evidence of deposit. Typical forms of deposits that should be included are savings deposits (which are always non-transferable), fixed term deposits and non-negotiable certificates of deposit.

Final consumption expenditure

Final consumption expenditure is net expenditure on goods and services by persons and expenditure of a current nature by private non-profit institutions serving households. This item excludes expenditures by unincorporated businesses and expenditures on assets by non-profit institutions (included in gross fixed capital formation). Also excluded is expenditure on maintenance of dwellings (treated as intermediate expenses of private enterprises), but personal expenditure on motor vehicles and other durable goods and the imputed rent of owner occupied dwellings are included. The value of 'backyard' production (including food produced and consumed on farms) is included in household final consumption expenditure and the payment of wages and salaries in kind (e.g. food and lodging supplied free to employees) is counted in both household income and household final consumption expenditure.

Gross disposable income

Gross disposable income is gross household income less income tax payable, other current taxes on income, wealth etc., consumer debt interest, interest payable by unincorporated enterprises, net non-life insurance premiums and other current transfers payable by households.

Gross mixed income

The surplus or deficit accruing from production by unincorporated enterprises. It includes elements of both compensation of employees and operating surplus (returns on capital inputs).

Gross operating surplus - dwellings owned by persons

Dwelling "GOS" is the surplus resulting from deduction of intermediate inputs from output. Output is the sum of actual and imputed rent on dwellings owned by households. Intermediate inputs are the goods and services consumed in the process of production (for example maintenance costs and body corporate fees). These inputs exclude property income payments such as interest.

Income tax payable

Income tax consists of taxes on the income of households and taxes on wealth which are levied regularly (wealth taxes which are levied irregularly are classified as capital taxes and are recorded in the sectoral capital accounts).

Insurance technical reserves

Insurance technical reserves comprise financial assets that are reserves against reserves outstanding risks, reserves for with-profit insurance, prepayments of premiums and reserves against outstanding claims. Insurance technical reserves may be liabilities not only of life or non-life insurance enterprises (whether mutual or incorporated) but also of autonomous pension funds, which are included in the insurance enterprise sub-sector, and certain non-autonomous pension funds that are included in the institutional sector that manages the funds. Insurance technical reserves are subdivided between net equity of households on life insurance reserves and on pension funds, and prepayments of premiums and reserves against outstanding claims.

Interest payable

Household interest payable mainly consists of interest payable on loans on dwellings (mortgages).

Loans and placements

Loans are borrowings which are not evidenced by the issue of debt securities, and are not usually traded and their value does not decline even in a period of rising interest rates. Placements are customers’ account balances with entities not regarded as deposit-taking institutions. Examples are account balances of State and local public non-financial corporations with their central borrowing authorities, of public sector pension funds with their State Treasuries, and 11am money placed with corporate treasuries.

Property income receivable

Property income receivable is the income receivable by the owners of a financial asset or a tangible non-produced asset in return for providing funds. Household property income mainly consists of dividend and interest income earned directly and through superannuation and insurance reserves.

Residential dwellings and land

Residential dwellings and land is the portion of dwellings and land primarily used as household residences. Dwellings are buildings that are used entirely or primarily as residences, including any associated structures, such as garages, and all permanent fixtures customarily installed in residences. Houseboats, barges, mobile homes and caravans used as principal residences of households are also included, as are historic monuments identified primarily as dwellings. The costs of site clearance and preparation are also included in the value of dwellings. Land consists of the ground, including the soil covering and any associated surface waters, over which ownership rights are enforced and from which economic benefits can be derived by their owners by holding or using them.

Shares and other equity

Equity has the distinguishing feature that the holders own a residual claim on the assets of the institutional unit that issued the equity. Equity represents the owner’s funds in the institutional unit. Equities are sub-divided into listed shares and unlisted shares; both types of shares are negotiable and so are classified as equity securities.

Social assistance benefits

Includes current transfers to persons from general government in return for which no services are rendered or goods supplied. Principal components include: scholarships; maternity, sickness and unemployment benefits; family allowances; and widows', age, invalid and repatriation pensions.

Social transfers in kind

Social transfers in kind are individual goods and services provided to individual households by general government units and non-profit institutions either free or at prices that are not economically significant, examples are education and health services.

Superannuation benefits received (memorandum item)

Superannuation benefits received are recorded in this information paper as a memorandum item of the household income account. Superannuation benefits received in the ASNA are treated as financial transactions of households and are not recorded as income; instead they are recorded in the financial account and balance sheet.

APA

Citation

Australian National Accounts: Distribution of Household Income, Consumption and Wealth methodology

APA

Citation

Overview of methodology for individual data points

Time series presentation

Periodicity

Models used to estimate data gaps in micro distributional data

Recent year models

Household Final Consumption Expenditure (HFCE)

Income and Wealth

Number of households in population

Changing demographics over time

Revisions

Relevant ABS publications

Glossary

Show all

Actual individual consumption

Compensation of employees

Currency and deposits

Final consumption expenditure

Gross disposable income

Gross mixed income

Gross operating surplus - dwellings owned by persons

Income tax payable

Insurance technical reserves

Interest payable

Loans and placements

Property income receivable

Residential dwellings and land

Shares and other equity

Social assistance benefits

Social transfers in kind

Superannuation benefits received (memorandum item)

Abbreviations

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