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How wealthy are Australians?

Discover how much the typical Australian is worth and how they measure up to citizens of other nations.

By Harry O'Sullivan

First published on 23 Apr 2024

Fact Checked

We all know we aren’t supposed to treat wealth and money like a competition, but if there was a list on the internet somewhere with every Australian’s net worth, would you honestly not be looking up your friends? No such database exists (at the time of writing) but you can compare your own wealth to the Australian average.

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Net worth and household wealth

The ABS says ‘wealth’ refers to the balance of assets and liabilities held by members of a household. Net worth is how much money you would have after cashing in all of your assets and paying off all of your debts

To work out your own net worth, you just need to sum up the value of all the assets you own (property, superannuation, cars, shares, etc.) and then subtract your outstanding debts (home loan, car loans, credit cards etc.)

Household wealth in Australia

The average Australian was worth about $733k at the end of the September ‘23 quarter per the ABS. That number comes from dividing total household wealth ($15.31 trillion) by the voting age population (about 20.89 million).

That $15.31 trillion is made up of about $18.3 trillion in assets, subtracted by just over $3 trillion in liabilities. The majority of holdings were in property, with the value of land and dwellings owned over $10.5 trillion - about 57% of the total assets.

Wealth in Australia

	Value held/owed by Australians in September '23	Per capita (only over 18s)
Land and dwellings	$10.5 trillion	$503k
Other non financial assets	$820 billion	$39k
Superannuation reserves	$3.59 trillion	$172k
Shares and other equity	$1.35 trillion	$65k
Currency and deposits	$1.66 trillion	$80k
Other financial assets	$385 billion	$18k
Total assets	$18.31 trillion	$877k
Loans	$2.84 trillion	$136k
Other liabilities	$179 billion	$8k
Total liabilities	$3.01 trillion	$144k
Australian household wealth (Assets-Liabilities)	$15.3 trillion	$733k

Source: ABS

How many millionaires in Australia?

Of course, Australian household wealth isn’t exactly spread out evenly. The further you zoom in on the very top end, the more you see just how unevenly that $15.66 trillion is distributed.

	Minimum net worth	Number of Aussies	Source
Net worth above USD $1 million	Roughly AUD$1.5 million depending on exchange rates	Around 1.8 million as of 2022	Credit Suisse Wealth Report 2023
Top 1% in Australia	$7.27 million	Roughly 209,000	Knight Frank Wealth Report 2024
Ultra high net worth individuals	Around $45 million	15,347	Knight Frank Wealth Report 2024
Billionaires	$1 billion	45	Forbes 2024 Rich list
Gina Rinehart (Current richest Australian)	$30.8 billion	1	Forbes 2024 Rich List

Meanwhile, the last Survey of Income and Housing from the ABS (covering 2019-20) found the bottom quintile of all Aussies held just 0.7% of the wealth. If we apply this to the latest household wealth figure, that means the bottom 20% of the Australian population has a combined net worth of about $107.17 billion. That’s less than the combined net worth of the eight richest individuals in Australia.

Net worth in Australia by age

As you might expect, the numbers suggest wealth is concentrated among older Australians. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, households with at least one member over 65 had an average net worth 1.5 times greater than younger households in 2017/2018. Over half (57%) of this difference was due to home ownership: older people owned property valued at an average of $597,000 compared to $328,000 for Aussies under 65.

Average Australian net worth through the years

The combined net worth of all Australians was $1.299 trillion in March 1989. Adjusted for inflation, that’s equivalent to around $3.26 trillion in today’s money per the RBA’s inflation calculator. That means in real terms, the current net worth of Australian households is 380% higher than in 1989, despite the adult population only being 70.5% higher at just over 12.25 million.

Net worth per adult in 1989 was $106,007, or $266,228 adjusted for inflation.

How rich is Australia compared to the world?

It’s easy to say that we’re a wealthy bunch, but the real test is how we compare to other regions around the world. As shown in the table above, it takes $7.27 million to crack the top 1% of individuals by net worth in Australia. This threshold is the seventh highest on earth, behind Monaco, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the USA, Singapore and Sweden.

It’s not just the top end of Aussies who are globally strong performers though. According to the Credit Suisse 2023 Global Wealth Report (just before the investment bank collapsed), in 2022, mean wealth per adult in Australia was USD$497k - the fourth-highest behind Switzerland, the US and Hong Kong.

For the stats nerds, median is probably a more relevant metric than mean wealth. Mean wealth tends to be blown out by the billionaires at the extreme end of the scale. In the US for example, mean wealth per adult was USD$551k, behind only Switzerland, while the median wealth per adult was less than USD$108k, which was only thirteenth in the world.

Per Forbes, there were about 735 billionaires in the states at the time (which has now risen to 835 as of 2024). According to Snopes, these individuals owned more wealth than the bottom 50% of US households.

While there are still big imbalances down under, wealth in Australia seems to be more evenly distributed than most of the other richest nations. In 2022, Australia’s median wealth per adult was more than USD$247k (about AUD$356k at the time) - the second highest in the world after Belgium. However, this has actually fallen substantially from 2021, when Australia was the highest at USD$276,080 (about AUD $367k).

Rank	Region	Median worth per adult in 2022 (USD, rounded to nearest '000)
1st	Belgium	$250k
2nd	Australia	$247k
3rd	Hong Kong	$202k
4th	New Zealand	$193k
5th	Denmark	$186k
6th	Switzerland	$167k
7th	United Kingdom	$152k
8th	Norway	$144k
9th	Canada	$138k
10th	France	$133k

Source: Credit Suisse 2023 Global Wealth Report

If you’ve crunched the numbers and found your wealth is below the national average or median, you’re probably still not doing too badly on a global scale. The Credit Suisse report found 86.7% of the global population has a net worth of less than USD$100k. More than half of the world has less than USD$10k to their name, which is worth remembering the next time you’re envious of the size of your neighbour's garden.

Savings.com.au’s two cents

If for example, you’re struggling with your mortgage, you’ll probably find someone telling you 'wealth won’t make you happy' extremely inane and irritating. When more money means stability, security, even food and shelter, it probably would improve your mood.

However, it can also make you unhappy. If money is a goal for you rather than a means to an end, it seems pretty inevitable you will end up jealous of people with more of it.

One last thing to think about. At the time of writing, Gina Rinehart is wrapped up in a legal case against her two eldest children, who claim she took inheritance money they were entitled to. Would you swap your relationship with your parents/children for her $30 billion fortune?

Actually maybe don’t answer that.

This article was initially published in 2021 by Rachel Horan and updated April 2024.

Image by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

Harry O'Sullivan

Harry joined Infochoice Group in November 2022 as a financial journalist. He's fascinated by economics, having completed a Bachelors Degree in 2021, and enjoys helping other people try to make sense of the financial system.

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How wealthy are Australians?

Net worth and household wealth