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Income and wealth inequality

Dynamic economy that shares prosperity

Release date and time

15/09/2025 11:30am AEST

Released 15/09/2025

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

In 2022-23, the Gini coefficient for equivalised disposable household income was 0.307. This is a decrease from 2021-22 (0.323), but slightly higher than in 2002-03 (0.299).

In 2022, Australia had the 16th highest level of income inequality among the 37 OECD countries for which data was available.

Additional data from the ABS Survey of Income and Housing (SIH) showed that 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).

Gini coefficient for income (a)
	HILDA (b)	SIH (c)
2002-03	0.299
2003-04	0.290	0.306
2004-05	0.293
2005-06	0.297	0.314
2006-07	0.309
2007-08	0.305	0.336
2008-09	0.295
2009-10	0.303	0.329
2010-11	0.310
2011-12	0.299	0.320
2012-13	0.302
2013-14	0.301	0.333
2014-15	0.298
2015-16	0.298	0.323
2016-17	0.305
2017-18	0.301	0.328
2018-19	0.304
2019-20	0.291	0.324
2020-21	0.298
2021-22	0.323
2022-23	0.307

Gini coefficient for income (a)

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

[["2002-03","2003-04","2004-05","2005-06","2006-07","2007-08","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"],[[0.2992],[0.2896],[0.293],[0.2968],[0.3088],[0.3048],[0.2945],[0.3033],[0.3104],[0.2986],[0.302],[0.3007],[0.2977],[0.2982],[0.3048],[0.301],[0.3036],[0.2909],[0.298],[0.3234],[0.307]],[[null],[0.306],[null],[0.314],[null],[0.336],[null],[0.329],[null],[0.32],[null],[0.333],[null],[0.323],[null],[0.328],[null],[0.324],[null],[null],[null]]]

[]

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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 equivalised disposable household income measure.
HILDA results are custom analysis of the HILDA survey funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services and managed by the Melbourne Institute.
In 2007–08 there was a change in SIH income standards, see Methodology for more information.

Data Source

Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey

Wealth inequality

In 2022-23, the Gini coefficient for household net worth was 0.606. This has decreased from 0.628 in 2018-19.

In 2022, Australia had the 20th highest level of wealth inequality among the 29 OECD countries for which data was available (using the "share of top 10% of wealth" measure).

Additional data from the ABS Survey of Income and Housing showed that 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).

Gini coefficient for wealth (a)
	HILDA (b)	SIH (c)
2002-03	0.629
2003-04		0.573
2004-05
2005-06		0.593
2006-07	0.633
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10		0.602
2010-11	0.625
2011-12		0.593
2012-13
2013-14		0.605
2014-15	0.628
2015-16		0.605
2016-17
2017-18		0.621
2018-19	0.628
2019-20		0.611
2020-21
2021-22
2022-23	0.606

Gini coefficient for wealth (a)

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

[["2002-03","2003-04","2004-05","2005-06","2006-07","2007-08","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"],[[0.6289],[null],[null],[null],[0.633],[null],[null],[null],[0.6249],[null],[null],[null],[0.6279],[null],[null],[null],[0.6275],[null],[null],[null],[0.606]],[[null],[0.573],[null],[0.593],[null],[null],[null],[0.602],[null],[0.593],[null],[0.605],[null],[0.605],[null],[0.621],[null],[0.611],[null],[null],[null]]]

[]

[{"value":"0","axis_id":"0","axis_title":"","axis_units":"","tooltip_units":"","table_units":"","axis_min":null,"axis_max":null,"tick_interval":null,"precision":"-1","data_unit_prefix":"","data_unit_suffix":"","reverse_axis":false}]

[{"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 unequivalised household net worth measure.
HILDA results are custom analysis of the HILDA survey funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services and managed by the Melbourne Institute.
Comprehensive wealth data was not collected in 2007-08 SIH.

Data Source

Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey