Monitoring Inequality in Australia: Introduction

Monitoring Inequality in Australia

Overall, the level of wellbeing of the Australian population is high when compared to the populations of many overseas countries.  However, these summary statistics hide substantial differences in the health and wellbeing of specific groups within our population.  Although this is most evident for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, there are also many other disadvantaged groups in Australia.

Inequality simply means ‘a difference’.  Numerous inequalities exist across the population in Australia and they tend to divide the community into different groupings.  There are many types of inequality – age, sex, ethnicity and race, social and economic position, disability, geographical area, health status etc.  Inequalities that occur as a result of differences in access to education, material resources, safe working conditions, effective services, living conditions in childhood, and so forth result because of differences that are unfair.  The challenge is to find those effective interventions that will address these inequities and improve the wellbeing of all those who are disadvantaged.

This website is a starting point for monitoring inequality. Over time, further data will be added to show the extent to which the level of inequality (absolute and relative) has changed.

The graphs show variations, for each indicator, by socioeconomic status.  Data are shown in five groupings of areas (quintiles) each representing approximately one fifth (20%) of the population.  The quintiles range from the 20% of the population living in the highest socioeconomic status (SES) areas (least disadvantaged) to the 20% living in the lowest SES areas (most disadvantaged).  The height of the bar for each quintile indicates the rate or per cent for the population usually resident in that quintile.  The ratio of the rate in the most disadvantaged areas (Quintile 5) to that in the least disadvantaged areas (Quintile 1) is shown on the right hand side of the graph: it is labelled the ‘Inequality ratio’.

Data period: the majority of the data is mid to late 2000s (Census data is 2006).


Where available, data are presented for Australia and each State/ Territory with separate data for capital cities (including other major urban centres) and non-metropolitan (country) areas - click on the link/s below:


Published 2010:          Aust           NSW          Vic          Qld          SA          WA          Tas           NT          ACT

Published 2009:          Aust           NSW          Vic          Qld          SA          WA          Tas           NT          ACT