Find the latest insights, updates, and analysis here.
Housing
In 2025, a median Australian household needed 45.9% of its income to service a new mortgage and 11.2 years to save a 20% deposit. Data on required income by city, property price, deposit size and borrower type.
Employment
Managers averaged $145,647 a year while sales workers averaged $45,666 in the latest official data. A complete breakdown of Australian earnings by occupation, industry, job type, wage growth and gender.
Housing
Nearly 1 million Australian households aged 55 and over still had a mortgage in the latest detailed ABS age-by-housing-cost data. Data on mortgage debt by age, housing costs in retirement, superannuation, equity release and downsizing trends.
Interest Rates
Australia has no single official borrowing-power figure. Here is how APRA, the RBA and ABS data define what banks actually assess, and what the latest lending numbers show.
Spending
How much Australians have saved at every age, from their 20s to pre-retirement. Superannuation balances, gender gap data, mean vs median, and the household saving ratio trend — all explained.
Housing
At the average dwelling price, stamp duty ranges from $26,909 in Tasmania to $53,573 in NSW. Data from ABS December quarter 2025 and all state revenue offices.
Housing
Australian homeowners collectively pay $25.1 billion in council rates each year. Average annual bills range from $1,775 in Adelaide to $4,252 in Canberra, shaped by council structure, services and the number of properties sharing the cost.
Housing
The average new owner-occupier dwelling loan was about $693,000 in 2025, with modelled monthly repayments of around $4,019. But the mortgage is only one part of what ownership costs. Add insurance, council rates, water, and maintenance, and the annual cost of ownership is often higher than buyers expect.
cost-of-living
Australian household electricity usage was valued at $23.9 billion in 2024–25, around twice the 2009–10 level. Using a regulated benchmark for households using 6,500 kWh a year, annual electricity bills range from $2,187 in Tasmania to $3,357 in South Australia. Electricity prices rose 22.5% in the year to April 2026.
Spending
Average credit card debt in Australia was $2,217 per active account in February 2026, based on balances accruing interest divided by active accounts. Total credit and charge card balances were $44.2 billion.
Housing
On every official Australian measure, renting still costs less in cash than paying a mortgage. Mortgage holders pay $114 a week more than renters, but renters are more than twice as likely to be in housing stress.
Housing
A 0.25 percentage point rate rise adds $116 a month to repayments on the average Australian mortgage of $736,000. See the impact by loan size, state, and borrower type.
cost-of-living
Australian households had an estimated average of $674 per month in essential bills in 2025, excluding mortgage repayments. For owner-occupiers with an average new mortgage, total monthly outgoings reached about $4,911.
Housing
The estimated average deposit gap in Australia reached about $338,400 at the end of 2025, based on the difference between the mean dwelling price and average new owner-occupier loan size. Benchmark deposits at 5%, 10% and 20% on the median house are $37,250, $74,500 and $149,000.
Housing
Darwin is Australia's most affordable capital city for buying a home in 2025; Sydney is the least. We compare all eight capitals on price-to-income, repayments and deposit timelines.
Housing
Australian rent inflation has cooled to 3.8% year-on-year in February 2026, but levels remain high. NSW medians sit near $670 a week, Western Australia has seen 75% growth since 2018, and 32.2% of renting households spend more than 30% of income on rent.
Housing
The average new owner-occupier loan in 2025 was $693,000, working out to around $4,006 a month at the February 2026 rate. Scheduled repayments now claim 9.6% of household disposable income.
Housing
The true upfront cost of buying a house in Australia in 2025, including deposit benchmarks, stamp duty by state, LMI, legal fees, building inspections, and a full worked example.
Wealth & inequality
Australia's average household net worth reached about $1.58 million in 2024, nearly three times the $530,000 recorded in 2004. But the typical household holds far less: the latest detailed survey recorded a median net worth of $579,200. Explore wealth distribution, concentration, superannuation balances by age and gender, and the wealth gap.
macro
A salary of around $122,000 sits in the top 20% of Australian employee earnings. At $156,000 it reaches the top 10%, and at roughly $203,000 the top 5%. Full ABS and ATO data with state breakdowns and a percentile calculator.
Wage statistics
Average full-time ordinary-time earnings reached $2,051 a week in November 2025, up 157% since 2000. After inflation, the real gain in purchasing power is much smaller, at around 15% to 20%.
Income & earnings
Average full-time earnings vary widely across Australia. In November 2025, the ACT recorded the highest figure at $2,248 a week, while Tasmania recorded the lowest at $1,821 a week. Western Australia ranked second, reflecting the strength of higher-paying industries such as mining.
Income & earnings
The average Australian employee earns an estimated $86,000 a year in early 2026. Data on earnings by age group, the gender pay gap, graduate salaries and superannuation balances across a working life.
Spending
The average full-time salary in Australia is often quoted at around $106,000 a year. But that figure does not show what most people earn. The median taxable income across all individual tax returns is $55,868, while the median income for employees is higher at $74,100.
Employment
The average full-time adult worker earned $106,657 per year based on the latest ABS data, but for most Australians, the more relevant figure is the median: $74,672 per year. Wages grew by 3.8% in the year to November 2025, but higher living costs mean many workers may still feel under pressure in 2026.
Spending
The average Australian household spends $178 a week on groceries, up from $157 when the ABS last measured it in 2016. Beef and veal prices rose 13.5% in the year to February 2026 alone. For single pensioners in regional areas, food now accounts for more than 22% of their income.
Property
Australian first-home buyers took out 119,464 new loans worth $67.9 billion in 2025. They now account for more than one in three owner-occupier loans, up from around one in four a decade ago.
Spending
Australian households spent an estimated $1.18 trillion on essentials and discretionary categories in 2025, up sharply from prior years amid persistent inflation in housing, food, transport and insurance.
Spending
In FY2025, Australian households saved around 6 cents of every dollar they earned, up from 3 cents the year before. Over the past decade, total household wealth more than doubled, driven by rising property values, higher superannuation balances and stronger household income growth.
Housing
Australian home insurers paid out $13.87 billion in claims during 2025, the highest level in APRA's current records and a 61% increase on 2024. The average combined home and contents premium rose to $2,795 nationally, with households in higher-risk regions paying substantially more.
Property
At the current national saving rate, it would take the average Australian household about 21 years to save a 20% deposit on a median-priced home. In Sydney, the estimate rises to 39 years, making it the longest deposit-saving timeline among major Australian cities.
Housing
At the 2021 Census, 468,800 Australian households were already spending more than 30% of their income on mortgage repayments, representing 14.5% of all mortgaged households. Since then, higher interest rates, inflation and changing household incomes have reshaped borrowing pressure.
Spending
Household spending can offer an early sign of where the economy is heading. When people keep spending, it can point to confidence. When they pull back, delay purchases or trade down, it can show pressure building in household budgets.
Employment
Employment is one of the main indicators the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) watches before making interest rate decisions. Jobs, wages and hours worked help show whether households are likely to keep spending or start cutting back.
Inflation
Inflation tracks how prices are moving across the economy, from rent and groceries to fuel, bills and services. But the national figure does not always match how rising costs feel in everyday household budgets.
Housing
Australia's homeownership rate sits at 66% according to the 2021 Census, down from around 70% in the 1980s. More households now own with a mortgage than own outright, a shift that first emerged in 2003 and has continued since.
Housing
Around 3.8 million Australian households have a mortgage. New owner-occupier loans averaged $736,000 nationally in the December 2025 quarter, rising to $873,000 in NSW. After the steepest rate-rise cycle since the early 1990s, average outstanding mortgage rates have eased from above 6% to 5.62%. Total new lending reached a record $385 billion in 2025.
Spending
Australian households owe a combined $3.40 trillion, with total household debt increasing by 65% over the past ten years. Most of that debt is tied to housing, as mortgages remain the largest financial commitment for Australian households.