Personal Income in Australia

• Most persons (77.5%) received employee income as their main source of income, up slightly from 77.4% in the previous year.
• Employee income recorded the highest median income ($54,161), which was 3.3% greater than the previous year.
• Superannuation income recorded the second highest median income ($22,828), which was 0.4% greater than the previous year.
• Only 1.6% of persons received superannuation income as their main source of income (unchanged from the previous year).

• The Australian Capital Territory recorded the highest median total income ($68,325) and Tasmania the lowest ($47,909).
• Victoria recorded the fastest growth rate since 2015-16 (10.7%) and Northern Territory the slowest (4.3%).
• 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 (10.8%).

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

In 2019-20, the three local government areas with the highest median total income in Australia were:

• Ashburton in Western Australia ($99,367)
• Roxby Downs in South Australia ($98,955)
• Peppermint Grove in Western Australia ($96,244)

The following median personal incomes are for areas with more than 1,000 earners.

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.

As mentioned above, data from 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, please see the Methodology.

In 2019-20, the following local government areas had:

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

• Roxby Downs in South Australia (0.351)
• Weipa in Queensland (0.354)
• Palmerston in Northern Territory (0.358)

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

• Walgett in New South Wales (1.877)
• Balonne in Queensland (0.880)
• Cottesloe in Western Australia (0.861)

In 2019-20, 3.8 million migrant taxpayers generated $230.3 billion in total personal income.

Most migrant taxpayers were permanent migrants (61.0% or 2.3 million people) who generated $160.7 billion (69.8%) of total migrant income.

• $82.9 billion (36.0%) was reported by permanent skilled migrants (1.0 million people)
• $47.4 billion (20.6%) was reported by other permanent migrants (667,700 people)
• $25.3 billion (11.0%) was reported by permanent family migrants (477,200 people)
• $4.9 billion (2.1%) was reported by permanent humanitarian migrants (118,500 people)

A quarter (24.5% or 928,500 people) were temporary migrants generating $32.2 billion (14.0%) of total migrant income.

For permanent migrants:

• $143.4 billion was reported as employee income with skilled migrants contributing 53.2% ($76.3 billion)
• $9.0 billion was reported as own unincorporated business income, noting that humanitarian migrants contributed $436 million (5.0%)
• $6.4 billion was reported as investment income with other permanent migrants contributing 50.9% ($3.3 billion)

For temporary migrants:

• $29.6 billion was reported as employee income, 14% of total employee income

This release previously used catalogue number 6524.0.55.002.

Following user feedback, an extra data download table has been added containing summary information for the entire time series (2011-12 to 2019-20). More detailed data for earlier years can be found in previous issues of this release.

19/12/2022 - Additional commentary on migrants' personal income and a new data download was added. The methodology section was also updated with further information about migrants.