The wealthiest 1 per cent of Australians held 21.8 per cent of the country's wealth in 2021, up from 19.6 per cent in 2007.
You're rich! Australia is now home to 2.2 million millionaires, according to a new study. Half of all Australians in 2021 had more than $400,000 in wealth. It means we have the highest median wealth of all the countries studied.
Household wealth inequality
The study found that household wealth in Australia is very unequally divided. The highest 10 per cent of households by wealth has an average of $6.1 million or 46 per cent of all wealth. The next 30 per cent has an average of $1.7 million or 38 per cent.
Wealthy Individuals within Australia are generally deemed to be those with net investible assets (NIA) over $1M (or net of over $2.5M including the family home) and earning more than $250,000 per annum. Having said this, the ATO categorise 'Wealthy Individuals' as those who control a net wealth of $5M or more.
It then goes on to describe those middle income Australians as individuals earning between $120,000 and $160,000 a year.
So if you're on $100k or more, congratulations, you're in the top 20% of Aussie income earners. If not, don't worry, you're in the good company of 80% of Aussies.
How much money you need to earn to be considered rich in Australia NOW as inflation eats into wages. An Australian full-time worker now needs to earn $91,000 a year to be considered an above-average income earner. High inflation is diluting the buying power of workers as wages struggle to keep pace with price increases ...
How much money do you need to be considered rich? According to Schwab's 2022 Modern Wealth Survey (opens in new tab), Americans believe it takes an average net worth of $2.2 million to qualify a person as being wealthy. (Net worth is the sum of your assets minus your liabilities.)
Australians are the wealthiest people in the world with a typical net worth of almost $US274,000 in 2021, just ahead of Belgium, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
Australia had over 176 thousand millionaires in 2020, an increase in the number of millionaires from the previous year. This was estimated to grow to over 215 thousand millionaires in the country by 2025.
To some extent it depends on fluidity of membership of the top 1% (which in Australia means earning a pretax income of at least A$246,000).
The average household gross income is $116,584, however the top 20% of households earn 48% of all income. Twelve times more than the bottom 20% who are left with just 4% of Australia's income.
Someone in the top 10% of the global income distribution makes $122,100 per year. And someone from the poorest half of the world makes just $3,920 per year.
Western Australia is the top region by GDP per capita in Australia. As of 2021, GDP per capita in Western Australia was 135,479 $. The top 5 regions also includes Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory, New South Wales, and Victoria.
Australia has plentiful supplies of natural resources, including the second largest accessible reserves of iron ore in the world, the fifth largest reserves of coal and significant gas resources. For a long time, commodities have made up a sizeable share of our exports.
The average Australian savings account balance varies depending on your age. According to a Westpac survey released in December 2021, the average customer has $22,020 in their savings account. The bank said this figure was likely skewed by larger deposit holders and pointed to a “more realistic figure” of $3,559.
Over a lifetime:
qualification and have children can expect to earn around $3.3m over their working life, nearly double the amount for women in the same category at $1.8m. lifetime earnings is pervasive across all age groups, but is most pronounced between men and women with children.
But how big of a net worth is required to be considered wealthy in some of the biggest cities in America? Charles Schwab's annual Modern Wealth Survey shares its insights for 2022. In the U.S. overall, the survey says it takes a net worth of $2.2 million to be considered wealthy, up from $1.9 million in 2021.
Your net worth is what you own minus what you owe. It's the total value of all your assets—including your house, cars, investments and cash—minus your liabilities (things like credit card debt, student loans, and what you still owe on your mortgage).
In fact, statistically, around 10% of retirees have $1 million or more in savings. The majority of retirees, however, have far less saved. If you're looking to be in the minority but aren't sure how to get started on that savings goal, consider working with a financial advisor.
1. Surgeons: $394,303. Taking out the top spot on this list and earning a whopping average of $394,303 per year are surgeons.
In August 2022: Median employee earnings was $1,250 per week, an increase of $50 since August 2021 (4.2%). 12.5% of employees were trade union members (1.4 million).
Our 2022 Poverty in Australia Snapshot found that there are 3.3 million people (13.4%) living below the poverty line of 50% of median income, including 761,000 children (16.6%). In dollar figures, the poverty line works out to $489 a week fir a single adult and $1,027 a week for a couple with 2 children.