To be considered in Australia's highest percentage of wealth, you must have a total net worth of a staggering US$5.5 million (A$8.26 million).
So, this generally excludes the investment in your family home and any toys or 'collectibles' you may have. 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.
A recent Finder survey revealed the average Aussie would need to earn a whopping $336,516 per year to feel rich. That's more than six times greater than the median personal income of $52,338, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Most high-income earners believe income of $454,000 makes an upper class household, while middle earners believe $280,000 is enough to be counted as upper class. However, low-income households that participated in the study believe $549,000 is enough to be considered upper class.
The average Australian would need to earn a salary of $326,900 per year to feel rich – nearly seven times the median wage, according to research released earlier this year. But one in four Aussies wouldn't consider themselves rich until they raked in a whopping $500,000.
But the survey also discovered that around one in four (25 per cent) of Aussies wouldn't consider themselves rich unless they were earning at least $500,000 a year. Finder personal finance expert Kate Browne said persistently pining for more money could be a dangerous game.
Is $100,000 salary good in Australia? Given that 50% of the population is earning less than $79,800, a salary of $100,000 puts you in the top half.
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 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.
“Which social class would you say you belong to?” > Five classes can be identified in Australian society. > They are: 'established affluent', 'emergent affluent', 'mobile middle', 'established middle, and 'established working'.
Anyone earning $180,000 would definitely be one of the country's highest paid workers. The large majority of workers (about 75 per cent) earn less than $78,624 a year before tax.
If your taxable income was $131,501 or higher, then you earned more than 90 per cent of other Australians. If you earned more than $253,066, then you took home more than 99 per cent of taxpayers. About 5 per cent of taxpayers had incomes above $180,000.
The highest number of rich-listers live in the 2088 postcode in Sydney - which includes Mosman and Spit Junction - with 19,707 people earning $188,324, on average. In comparison, there were just 559 people in the 3944 Portsea postcode in Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, earning an average of $229,805 per year.
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.
Americans need at least $2.2 million in assets to be considered rich, according to Charles Schwab's 2023 Modern Wealth Survey. The investment platform surveyed 1,000 Americans to determine the average net worth required to be considered wealthy in America.
According to Credit Suisse's most recent annual Global Wealth Report, 390,000 Australians became millionaires in 2021, bringing the nation's total to 2.18 million.
Key statistics
Average equivalised disposable household income was $1,124 per week. Average net worth for all Australian households in 2019–20 was $1.04 million. Total average liabilities for households saw a statistically significant increase from $189,500 in 2017–18 to $203,800 in 2019–20.
To be among the top 10 per cent of Australia's 14,958,590 income earners, someone would need to earn $122,664 - based on 2019-20 Australian Taxation Office data, the latest available figures.
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.
People in the census's very top income bracket, like you, earn at least $156,000 a year — or $3,000 a week — before tax. At census time, there were about 596,531 people in Australia above that income level — or 3.8 per cent of income earners.
A2– The average salary in Australia is relatively high compared to many other countries due to their strong economy, high cost of living, and labor laws.
All in all, only two percent of Australia's 14.3 million workers take over $200,000 a year. Only three percent of Australians earn $188,667.
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.
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.