Income and financial stress levels are well-established social determinants of health and wellbeing in Australia (Mackenbach 2015). Households with higher levels of income typically show lower levels of stress in meeting basic living costs and have greater choice in food quality, housing, physical exercise, social participation and health care than lower income households (Braveman et al. 2011; Mackenbach 2015).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people consistently earn lower average incomes from employment and private sources than non-Indigenous Australians, and are more likely to be living on low incomes (Osborne et al. 2013). This contributes to poorer health and wellbeing outcomes and increases reliance on government income assistance for Indigenous Australians (SCRGSP 2020). For many disadvantaged Australians, including Indigenous Australians, access to social security payments is essential to ensure their economic and social wellbeing.

The first section of this page examines the median weekly income of Indigenous Australians in 3 ways:

  1. gross equivalised household income
  2. gross personal income of an individual
  3. disposable income, which presents the first 2 income sources listed here after tax is deducted.

For more information on the income and finance of Indigenous Australians, see ‘Chapter 4, The impacts of COVID-19 on employment and income support in Australia’ in Australia’s welfare 2021: data insights.

See also Indigenous employment.

Equivalised household income

About income data

Data on personal and household income for Indigenous Australians come from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, 2018–19 (ABS 2019b) and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey, 2014–15 (ABS 2016a). Comparison data for the non-Indigenous population are not available for the 2018–19 financial year, so comparisons on this page are drawn from the ABS National Health Survey, 2017–18 and 2014–15 (ABS 2016b, 2019c).

Household income levels on this page are equivalised (adjusted) at the individual level, meaning that they are presented for each household member after accounting for differences in the size and age profile of households. They have also been adjusted for inflation so that all median household and personal income figures for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians are presented in 2018–19 Australian dollars (see glossary).

In 2018–19, the median gross adjusted household income per week among Indigenous Australians aged 18 and over was $553, after adjusting for household size and age profile. This was 4.5% lower than in 2014–15 ($579) and 29% higher than in 2002 ($430), after adjusting for inflation (Figure 1). Among this group, over 1 in 4 (26%) reported gross adjusted household incomes of $1,000 or more per week in 2018–19, an increase of 4.7 percentage points since 2014–15 (21%) (ABS 2016a, 2019a).

  • This, however, is only half the comparable proportion of non-Indigenous Australians aged 18 and over (50%) who reported gross adjusted household incomes of $1,000 or more per week in 2017–18 (ABS 2019c).

In 2017–18, the median gross adjusted household income per week for non-Indigenous Australians aged 18 and over was $915 – similar to that in 2014–15 ($910) and 14% higher than it was in 2002 ($802), after adjusting for inflation.

  • This amount is roughly two-thirds (65%) higher than the corresponding household income of Indigenous Australians in 2018–19 ($553) (Figure 1).

Top and bottom 20% of the income distribution

Forty per cent of Indigenous Australians reported gross adjusted weekly household incomes in the bottom 20% of the income distribution for all Australians aged 18 and over in 2018–19, an increase of 4.1 percentage points since 2014–15 (36%).

  • This is roughly 2.5 times the proportion of non-Indigenous Australians (16%) who reported being in the bottom 20% in 2017–18 (ABS 2019c).

Eight per cent of Indigenous Australians reported gross adjusted weekly household incomes in the top 20% of the income distribution for all Australians aged 18 and over in 2018–19, an increase of 1.6 percentage points since 2014–15 (6.6%) (ABS 2016a, 2019a).

  • For non‑Indigenous Australians, the corresponding proportion in 2017–18 was almost 3 times as high (22%) (ABS 2019c).
     

This visualisation shows the median gross equivalised household income in 2018–19 Australian dollars by remoteness area and Indigenous status at the individual level. For Indigenous Australians, Major cities: $719, Inner regional: $520, Outer regional: $450, Remote: $464, Very remote: $400, Australia: $553. For non-Indigenous Australians, Major cities: $975, Inner regional: $771, Outer regional: $760, Remote: $928, Very remote: not available, Australia: $915. Additional views are available presenting median household income by remoteness from 2002–2015, median personal income by Indigenous status from 2002–19 and the proportion of working age persons relying on Government payments by Indigenous status from 2002–19.

Personal income

Between 2014–15 and 2018–19, after adjusting for inflation, the median gross weekly personal income for Indigenous Australians aged 18 and over fell by 5.6%, from $518 to $489 (Figure 1). Among this group, 23% reported a gross personal income of $1,000 or more per week in 2018–19, slightly more than half of the comparable proportion of non‑Indigenous Australians (42%) in 2017–18 (ABS 2019b, 2019c).

In 2018–19, Indigenous Australian men were around twice as likely as women to report a gross personal income of $1,000 or more per week (31% and 16%, respectively).

Sixty-eight per cent of Indigenous Australians aged 18 and over reported a gross personal income between $1 and $799 per week in 2018–19, 22 percentage points higher than the comparable proportion of non-Indigenous Australians (47%) in 2017–18 (ABS 2019b, 2019d).

Non-Indigenous Australians reported a median gross personal income per week of $780 in 2017–18, 60% higher than that for Indigenous Australians in 2018–19, after adjusting for inflation. Personal income among non-Indigenous Australians has fallen by 8.8% since 2014–15 ($855), after adjusting for inflation (Figure 1).

Variation by remoteness area

Personal income varied considerably by remoteness area for Indigenous Australians. Among those aged 18 and over in 2018–19, the highest median gross personal income per week ($600) was reported in Major cities. There was a consistent decrease with increasing remoteness, with the lowest median gross personal income reported in Very remote areas ($350). A similar pattern was seen in 2014–15 (Figure 1).

Personal income for non-Indigenous Australians also varied by remoteness, with the highest median personal income per week reported in Major cities ($915) and the lowest in Outer regional areas ($712) in 2017–18, after adjusting for inflation (Figure 1).

The difference in median personal income between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians was highest in Remote areas, where the median gross personal income per week for non-Indigenous Australians ($813) was 85% higher than that for Indigenous Australians ($440) in the 2017–18 to 2018–19 period, after adjusting for inflation. This difference was smallest in Inner regional areas, though still 51% higher ($741 and $490 for non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians, respectively) (Figure 1).

Disposable income

The data on personal and household incomes presented earlier on this page are for gross income – the total income (including government payments) before deductions such as income tax or ‘salary sacrifice’ payments are made. Disposable income is the amount of income received after tax, so it is a better measure of the economic resources available to a person or household.

Data on disposable incomes for Indigenous Australians are not currently available; however, by combining information from the ABS 2016 Census of Population and Housing with data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics (HILDA) Survey, Markham & Biddle (2018) have estimated personal and household disposable income for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians (note that these values are not adjusted for inflation).

Variation by remoteness area

Their analysis suggests that, in 2016, the median equivalised disposable income per week among Indigenous households was $557, around 69% of that in non-Indigenous households. Median disposable income for Indigenous households decreased with remoteness, from $647 in Major cities to $389 in Very remote areas, with the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous disposable household incomes also increasing with remoteness. The median personal disposable income per week for Indigenous Australians in 2016 was $437, which again decreased with remoteness from a median of $499 in Major cities to $292 in Very remote areas (Markham & Biddle 2018).

Main sources of personal income

In 2018–19:

  • 45% of working age Indigenous Australians (18–64 years) relied on a government pension or allowance as their main income source – a drop of 2.1 percentage points from the equivalent figure in 2014­–15 of 47%
  • 44% relied on employee income
  • 5.7% reported other main sources of income
  • 5.6% reported having no source of income, or did not know or state their income source (SCRGSP 2020).

The proportion of Indigenous Australians of working age whose main source of income was a government pension or allowance was highest in 2018–19 in Outer regional areas (57%) and lowest in Major cities (36%). For non-Indigenous Australians in 2017–18, the proportion was also highest in Outer regional areas (20%) and lower in both Remote areas (10%) and Major cities (11%) (Figure 1).

In 2018–19, the proportion of working age Indigenous Australians relying on wages or salaries as their main income source was highest in Major cities (53%) and lowest in Very remote areas (32%). The overall proportion remained stable between 2014–15 (43%) and 2018–19 (44%) (SCRGSP 2020).

Income support and COVID-19

Income support payments provide for basic costs of living and are the primary form of financial assistance for individuals who are unable, or not expected, to fully support themselves when they are not working. In Australia, Services Australia delivers income support payments through its network of offices. Due to the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the Australian Government made considerable changes to income support payments in 2020.

See Unemployment and parenting income support payments for more information.

As at 25 December 2020, slightly more than half (53%) of Indigenous Australians aged 16 and over were receiving some form of income support payment – a total of around 299,600 recipients (ABS 2019a; DSS 2021). This is almost twice the proportion of comparable other Australians receiving some form of income support (27%) (Figure 2) (see glossary and A guide to Australian Government payments for descriptions of income support payments).

  • The total proportion of people aged 16 and over receiving an income support payment increased by 7.8 percentage points for Indigenous Australians and by 4.6 percentage points for other Australians between December 2019 and June 2020 (Figure 2).
  • These increases were mainly due to a large rise in the number of recipients of the JobSeeker Payment (formerly the Newstart Allowance) and Youth Allowance (other) between December 2019 and June 2020 and reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Australian labour market (ABS 2020a) (Figure 2).
  • The proportion of Indigenous Australians aged 22–65 years receiving Newstart Allowance (2019) or the JobSeeker Payment (2020) increased by one-third between December 2019 and June 2020 (from 21% to 27%) – an additional 28,700 recipients. In comparison, the proportion of comparable other Australians receiving either of these payments more than doubled, rising from 4.6% to 9.4% over this period (Figure 2).
  • Indigenous Australians accounted for 4.0% of the increase in overall JobSeeker Payment recipients between December 2019 and June 2020, despite representing only 2.9% of the 22–65 year old population in this period (ABS 2019a, 2020c; DSS 2020a, 2020b).
  • The total number of Indigenous Australians aged 16 and over receiving income support payments increased by 26% between June 2018 and June 2020; the proportion of this population receiving income support payments increased by 8.6 percentage points over the same period (Figure 2).
  • The most common income support payments received by Indigenous Australians in December 2020 were the JobSeeker Payment (116,600 recipients), Youth Allowance (other) (28,700), the Disability Support Pension (52,700) and the Parenting Payment (single) (39,400) (Figure 2).

Indigenous Australians as income support recipients

Overall, Indigenous Australians made up 5.3% of all income support recipients in December 2020, yet they represent just 2.8% of the Australian population aged 16 and over. The share of Indigenous Australians among income support recipients has been steadily increasing since June 2016, when they made up 4.3% of the income support population. Excluding the Age Pension, Indigenous Australians made up 8.9% of all other income support recipients in December 2020 – a slight drop since December 2019 when it was 9.7% (ABS 2019a; DSS 2020a, 2021).

The share of Indigenous Australians among total income support recipients varied by type of income support payment, representing 19% of all recipients of Youth Allowance (other), 16% of the Parenting Payment (single) and 8.8% of the JobSeeker Payment in December 2020 (Figure 2).

Data qualification

Note that Indigenous identification in Services Australia (Centrelink) and population data is voluntary and self-identified. This may influence the quality and completeness of the data and subsequent reporting on the number and proportion of Indigenous Australians receiving income support payments, especially among older Indigenous Australians and pension recipients.

JobKeeper data for Indigenous Australians were not available at the time of writing.
 

This visualisation shows the proportion of reference population (i.e. those in the eligible age range for each payment) persons receiving income support payments by payment type and Indigenous status in December 2020. For Indigenous Australians, Age Pension: 53%, Total: 53%, JobSeeker Payment: 28%, Youth Allowance (other): 20%, Disability Support Pension: 10%, Youth Allowance (student and apprentice): 1%, Parenting Payment (single): 8%, Carer Payment: 3%, Parenting Payment (partnered): 2%, ABSTUDY (Living Allowance): 2%. For other Australians, Age Pension: 62%, Total: 27%, JobSeeker Payment: 9%, Youth Allowance (other): 4%, Disability Support Pension: 4%, Youth Allowance (student and apprentice): 6%, Parenting Payment (single): 1%, Carer Payment: 2%, Parenting Payment (partnered): 0.5%. Additional views are available presenting the above proportions, the number of Indigenous recipients and the Indigenous share in total recipients for June 2016–20 and December 2019.

Financial stress

A person can be considered to be in financial stress or financially vulnerable if they are experiencing cash-flow problems or are unable to raise emergency funds (Breunig et al. 2017; Whiteford 2013).

In 2018–19, among Indigenous Australians aged 15 and over:

  • more than half (53%) reported living in a household that could not raise $2,000 within a week for an emergency, an increase of 5.4 percentage points from 2014–15 (48%) (Figure 3)
  • almost 2 in 5 (39%) reported that their household had days without money for basic living expenses in the last 12 months, an increase of 11 percentage points from 2014–15 (28%) (Figure 3).
     

This visualisation shows the proportion of individuals reporting to experience financial stress in 2014–15 and 2017–19 by Indigenous status. Among all Indigenous persons aged 15 and over, 53% and 48% reported not being able to raise $2000 in an emergency in 2018–19 and 2014–15 respectively, with 39% and 26% reporting experiencing cash flow problem(s) in the last 12 months in 2018–19 and 2014–15 respectively. For non-Indigenous households, 20% and 13% reported not being able to raise $2000 in an emergency in 2017–18 and 2014–15 respectively, with 22% and 19% reporting cash flow problem(s) in the last 12 months in 2017–18 and 2014–15 respectively.

Where do I go for more information?

For further information on the income and finance of Indigenous Australians, see:

See Labour Force, Australia for more information on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Australian labour market.

See also Indigenous Australians.

References

ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) 2016a. Microdata: National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey, 2014–15. Findings based on the use of TableBuilder data. ABS cat. no. 4720.0.55.002. Canberra: ABS.

ABS 2016b. Microdata: National Health Survey, 2014–15. Findings based on the use of TableBuilder data. ABS cat. no. 4324.0.55.001. Canberra: ABS.

ABS 2019a. Estimates and projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Reference period 2006–2031. ABS cat. no. 3238.0. Canberra: ABS.

ABS 2019b. Microdata: National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, 2018–19. Findings based on the use of TableBuilder data. ABS cat. no. 4715.0.55.001. Canberra: ABS.

ABS 2019c. Microdata: National Health Survey, 2017–18. Findings based on the use of TableBuilder data. ABS cat. no. 4324.0.55.001. Canberra: ABS.

ABS 2020a. Labour force, Australia. Reference period June 2020. Canberra: ABS. Viewed 5 August 2021.

ABS 2020b. National, state and territory population. Reference period June 2020. Canberra: ABS. Viewed 5 August 2021.

Braveman P, Egerter S & Williams DR 2011. The social determinants of health: coming of age. Annual Review of Public Health 32:381–98. Viewed 5 August 2021.

Breunig R, Hasan S & Hunter B 2017. Financial stress and Indigenous Australians. Bonn, Germany: IZA Institute of Labor Economics. Viewed 5 August 2021.

DSS (Department of Social Services) 2016. DSS demographics June 2016. Canberra: DSS. Viewed 5 August 2021.

DSS 2018. DSS demographics June 2018. Canberra: DSS. Viewed 5 August 2021.

DSS 2019. DSS demographics June 2019. Canberra: DSS. Viewed 5 August 2021.

DSS 2020a. DSS demographics December 2019. Canberra: DSS. Viewed 5 August 2021.

DSS 2020b. DSS demographics June 2020. Canberra: DSS. Viewed 5 August 2021.

DSS 2021: DSS demographics December 2020. Canberra: DSS. Viewed 5 August 2021.

Mackenbach J 2015. Socioeconomic inequalities in health in high-income countries: the facts and the options. In: Detels R, Gulliford M, Karim QA & Tan CC (eds). Oxford textbook of global public health. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Markham F & Biddle N 2018. Income, povery and inequality. 2016 Census paper 2. Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University. Viewed 5 August 2021.

Osborne K, Baum F & Brown L 2013. What works? A review of actions addressing the social and economic determinants of Indigenous health. Canberra: AIHW. Viewed 5 August 2021.

SCRGSP (Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision) 2020. Overcoming Indigenous disadvantage: key indicators 2020. Canberra: Productivity Commission. Viewed 5 August 2021.

Whiteford P 2013. Australia: inequality and prosperity and their impacts in a radical welfare state. Canberra: Australian National University. Viewed 5 August 2021.