Friday 29th of March 2024

well-off australians are pulling away from the rest of the nation...

getting away

It's official: the rich are getting richer.

Well-off Australians are pulling away from the rest of the nation, with inequality of wealth rising in recent years, new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show.

The data is detailed in the ABS's latest Household Income and Wealth Australia 2017-18 report, released today.

The figures show income growth has been virtually non-existent for many — average household incomes have stagnated, with virtually no growth since 2013, although income inequality has also remained relatively stable.

However, the report shows that wealth is highly concentrated in Australia.

The average net worth of the top 20 per cent of households is more than 93 times that of the lowest 20 per cent — some $3.2 million compared to just $35,200.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-12/household-income-and-wealth-abs-d...

the genius genie of the gini gap...

This analysis rests heavily on something called the Gini coefficient.

It's a mathematical formula that measures the gap between the income or wealth distribution that would happen if everything was evenly distributed.

If the gap is zero, then there is perfect equality in the distribution of income or wealth — everyone gets exactly the same. But if it is 1, then a single person earns or owns everything.

The closer to zero, the more equal the society.

On this measure, Australia has a reasonably equal distribution of income. Once taxes and government payments to low-income earners are factored in, the nation's Gini coefficient is just above 0.3. That's about mid-table for developed nations.

 

Read more

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-31/wealthiest-australians-nearly-50-...