40% of Australians consider themselves to be middle class. This statistic is a telling indication of the state of the Australian middle class.
Most Australians (52 per cent) view themselves as belonging to the middle class. Forty per cent describe themselves as belonging to the working class, and only two per cent are prepared to admit to belonging to the upper class of Australian society (with six per cent providing no answer).
Australians wanting to be in the country's top 1% for wealth need to have an individual net worth of US$5.5 million ($8.3 million), Knight Frank's 2023 Wealth Report has found.
Average Australian Salaries in 2023
A taxable income that was $131,501 or higher was within the top 10% of earners in Australia last year. About 5% of taxpayers had incomes above $180,000. Someone who earned more than $253,066 was in the top 1%.
Defining 'middle class' as those households with disposable incomes between the 30th and the 80th percentiles, nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of middle-class households do not have mortgages at all. Of those who do, 41 per cent have mortgages under $100,000 and nearly 80 per cent under $200,000.
Lower-income class refers to households with income below 75% of the median national income. Middle-income class refers to households with income between 75% and 200% of the median national income.
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.
$100,000/year is above an average salary and if you're frugal enough, on $100,000/year, you should be able to live a good life and save some money too. Usually if you consider living in desirable locations of cities like Melbourne and Sydney, most of your income will be consumed in the house rents.
The average Aussie said they would need to earn significantly more money than the median salary to feel wealthy. According to a nationally representative survey of 1,081 by Finder, the average Australian would need to earn a whopping $336,516 per year to feel rich.
Only another 14.9 per cent had taxable incomes exceeding $80,000 a year. So a taxpayer with an income of $80,000 a year is therefore in the top 20 per cent of Australians.
Not only are individuals on $200,000 very much at the top but even households earning that much are. If we just look at all households in Australia we find that the median annual income in 2017-18 was $88,764: But that doesn't tell us very much about standards of living.
The average class size, Kindergarten to Year 6, is 23.6 students in 2021. This is 3.3 students fewer than in 1997 and 2.6 students fewer than in 2004 when the Class Size Reduction Program commenced.
Lower-income households had incomes less than $48,500; Upper-income households had incomes greater than $145,500; Middle-income households fell into a range between those two numbers.
The top 20% richest individuals have annual pre-tax incomes of about $330,000, the middle 20% make about $116,000 while the lowest 20% earn $41,000. In terms of income from investments, the biggest chunk is concentrated at the topmost. Close to 70% of investment income goes to the 20% most moneyed households.
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.
There is no “one size fits all” plan for all but it is understood that an individual may need approximately $20,000 each year and an average family needs more than $50,000 a year to get by in Australia.
1. Surgeon ($457,281) Surgeons were the top-paying job in the country, making an eye-watering $457,281 per year. There are 4,157 in Australia.
Just 3.8 per cent of taxpayers had a taxable income that high in 2019-20. And only 25 per cent had a taxable income higher than $80,000 a year. So a taxpayer with an annual income of $80,000 is in the top quarter of Australian taxpayers.
Only 9,144 of the 14,467 Australians on taxable incomes of more than $1 million worked. Only 17,883 of the 222,813 Australians on more than $250,000 worked.
If you make $300,000 a year living in Australia, you will be taxed $111,667. That means that your net pay will be $188,333 per year, or $15,694 per month.
The average earnings of the top 20% are 12x the average earnings of the bottom 20% and the wealth of the average household in the top 20% is 93x the average wealth of those in the bottom 20%. The average household gross income is $121,108, however the top 20% of households earn 48% of all income.
Overall, less than 3 per cent of Australians feel wealthy despite the fact that more than 15 per cent of those surveyed earn more than $200,000 a year. However, most people surveyed felt “comfortable” on their current wage, with 55 per cent indicating this on a sliding scale when asked if they felt wealthy.
Data has revealed that there are 27 Australians with more than $100 million in super — but a small detail has prompted frenzied speculation as to which rich-lister has a racked up an eye-watering balance of more than $544 million.