Income and wealth inequality

Dynamic economy that shares prosperity

Metric

Gini coefficient for income and wealth

Why this matters

The distribution of income and wealth amongst households is an important aspect of community wellbeing. One measure to assess how equally income and wealth is distributed is the Gini coefficient. A Gini coefficient can range between 0 and 1, with a lower Gini coefficient representing a more equal distribution. Wealth is typically distributed less equally than income.

Progress

Income inequality

For households in 2019-20, the Gini coefficient for equivalised disposable income was 0.324, relatively steady from 2017-18 (0.328), and slightly higher than 2003-04 (0.306).

In 2020, Australia had the 17th highest level of income inequality among the 34 OECD countries for which data was available.

More recent data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey shows increasing levels of income inequality in the years since 2019-20, with the Gini coefficient for equivalised disposable household income increasing from 0.289 in 2019-20 to 0.322 in 2021-22.

Gini coefficient for income
	SIH	HILDA (b)
2001-02		0.300
2002-03		0.298
2003-04	0.306	0.291
2004-05		0.295
2005-06	0.314	0.296
2006-07		0.309
2007-08 (a)	0.336	0.306
2008-09		0.296
2009-10	0.329	0.303
2010-11		0.311
2011-12	0.320	0.300
2012-13		0.302
2013-14	0.333	0.301
2014-15		0.296
2015-16	0.323	0.296
2016-17		0.304
2017-18	0.328	0.300
2018-19		0.305
2019-20	0.324	0.289
2020-21		0.296
2021-22		0.322

Gini coefficient for income

["","SIH","HILDA (b)"]

[["2001-02","2002-03","2003-04","2004-05","2005-06","2006-07","2007-08 (a)","2008-09","2009-10","2010-11","2011-12","2012-13","2013-14","2014-15","2015-16","2016-17","2017-18","2018-19","2019-20","2020-21","2021-22"],[[null],[null],[0.30599999999999999],[null],[0.314],[null],[0.33600000000000002],[null],[0.32900000000000001],[null],[0.32000000000000001],[null],[0.33300000000000002],[null],[0.32300000000000001],[null],[0.32800000000000001],[null],[0.32400000000000001],[null],[null]],[[0.29960379999999998],[0.297533881],[0.29099482300000001],[0.29529604100000001],[0.29635598800000001],[0.30924665899999998],[0.30638854799999998],[0.29620380200000002],[0.30272394600000002],[0.31063719200000001],[0.30039976400000001],[0.30226656899999998],[0.30083745699999997],[0.29630953500000001],[0.29597657100000002],[0.303827605],[0.30026906799999997],[0.30457449800000003],[0.28925662000000002],[0.29619458500000001],[0.32163781299999999]]]

[]

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Using equivalised disposable household income measure.

In 2007–08 there was a change in SIH income standards, see Methodology for more information.
Data sourced from Figure 2.2 - Productivity Commission 2024, A snapshot of inequality in Australia, Research paper, Canberra.

Data Source

ABS Household income and wealth

Wealth inequality

For households in 2019-20, the Gini coefficient for net worth was 0.611, relatively steady from 2017-18 (0.621) and slightly higher than 2003-04 (0.573).

In 2019, Australia had the 19th highest level of wealth inequality among the 28 OECD countries for which data was available (using the "share of top 10% of wealth" measure).

More recent data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey shows decreasing levels of wealth inequality in the years since 2019-20, with the Gini coefficient for equivalised household net worth decreasing from 0.609 in 2018-19 to 0.584 in 2022-23.

Gini coefficient for wealth
	SIH (a)	HILDA (c)
2002-03		0.610
2003-04	0.573
2004-05
2005-06	0.593
2006-07		0.617
2007-08 (b)
2008-09
2009-10	0.602
2010-11		0.607
2011-12	0.593
2012-13
2013-14	0.605
2014-15		0.618
2015-16	0.605
2016-17
2017-18	0.621
2018-19		0.609
2019-20	0.611
2020-21
2021-22
2022-23		0.584

Gini coefficient for wealth

["","SIH (a)","HILDA (c)"]

[["2002-03","2003-04","2004-05","2005-06","2006-07","2007-08 (b)","2008-09","2009-10","2010-11","2011-12","2012-13","2013-14","2014-15","2015-16","2016-17","2017-18","2018-19","2019-20","2020-21","2021-22","2022-23"],[[null],[0.57299999999999995],[null],[0.59299999999999997],[null],[null],[null],[0.60199999999999998],[null],[0.59299999999999997],[null],[0.60499999999999998],[null],[0.60499999999999998],[null],[0.621],[null],[0.61099999999999999],[null],[null],[null]],[[0.60978650499999998],[null],[null],[null],[0.61729115899999998],[null],[null],[null],[0.607340781],[null],[null],[null],[0.617807879],[null],[null],[null],[0.60923893299999998],[null],[null],[null],[0.58408801899999996]]]

[]

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[{"value":"0","axis_id":"0","axis_title":"Gini coefficient","axis_units":"","tooltip_units":"","table_units":"","axis_min":"0","axis_max":null,"tick_interval":null,"precision":"3","data_unit_prefix":"","data_unit_suffix":"","reverse_axis":false}]

Using household net worth measure.
Comprehensive wealth data was not collected in 2007–08.
Using equivalised household net worth measure. Data sourced from Figure 2.12 - Productivity Commission 2024, A snapshot of inequality in Australia, Research paper, Canberra.

Data Source

ABS Household income and wealth