Income in Australia
The median income in Australia is about $55 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars) — richer than 92% of everyone alive. Half of Australia lives on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the bottom 2% of Australia.
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The curve
Daily income per person, log scale, PPP dollars — the same curve the machine walks you across.
What it takes to stand where
Take-home income per person, in today's AUD, at each point on the curve of Australia (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of Australia | A$16,961 | $26 |
| 25% of Australia | A$25,031 | $38 |
| 50% of Australia | A$36,087 | $55 |
| 75% of Australia | A$53,836 | $82 |
| 90% of Australia | A$78,080 | $119 |
| 99% of Australia | A$189,950 | $290 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in Australia
How much of Australia and of the world lives on each of four income levels. The cuts are the World Bank's $3.00 (international poverty line) and $8.30 (upper-middle-income line), both 2021 PPP; the top cut, $33, is the machine's own, four times the $8.30 line. The objects are what an income on each level tends to buy across the world's surveys — not a description of any one country.
| Level | per day (PPP $) | What tends to come with it, worldwide | Australia | World |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | under $3.00 | a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot | 1% | 13% |
| Level 2 | $3.00–$8.30 | a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance | 1% | 39% |
| Level 3 | $8.30–$33 | a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account | 15% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | 83% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a dayAustralia 1% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a dayAustralia 1% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a dayAustralia 15% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a dayAustralia 83% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 83% of Australia lives on Level 4, $33 a day or more per person; worldwide, roughly one in seven people do.
The line that moved
In Australia, 1.0% lived under the $3.00 line at the 1995 survey and under 1% at the 2020 one — it has barely moved.
Share of Australia under $3.00 a day (2021 prices) at each national survey, World Bank PIP via Our World in Data; the faint line is the world's.
Worldwide, the share under the World Bank's $3.00-a-day line fell from about 43% in 1990 to about 10% today (Our World in Data; the latest years are the Bank's nowcast). Where the lift came, it came the unglamorous way: wages, harvests, workshops.
Who earns what in Australia
8 portraits, not payroll data: each stands roughly where that kind of work typically earns on the curve of Australia.
| the lowest 10% | the earnings of a casual hospitality worker — flat whites at pace |
|---|---|
| 10–25% | the earnings of an aged-care worker |
| 25–45% | the earnings of a truck driver — distances Europeans refuse to believe |
| 45–65% | the earnings of an electrician — a tradie with a ute and a waitlist |
| 65–82% | the earnings of a schoolteacher |
| 82–93% | the earnings of a mining engineer in the Pilbara — fly in, fly out, iron ore all around |
| 93–98% | the earnings of a medical specialist |
| the highest 2% | the earnings of a banking executive in Sydney — harbour view included |
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Where this comes from
The World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform percentile distribution for Australia (survey year 2020), in 2021 PPP dollars; incomes typed in today's money are deflated to 2021 prices with the national CPI and converted with the 2021 consumption-PPP factor. Snapshot fetched September 2026. Full methodology & honesty rules.
Neighbours on the curve
The countries whose median income sits nearest to Australia's — and a few far from it, for scale.