Living standard trends in Australia

Executive Summary This research for Anglicare Australia focusses on the changes in living standards for a broad range of family types in Australia between 2004 and 2014. The report also projects where these living standards will be by 2024 taking into account the current trajectory of Budget policy, expected demographic and socioeconomic change. We find that living standards have increased in Australia over the past 10 years however, that growth was not shared evenly by all. The gap in the living standards between the richest and poorest grew by around 13 percentage points during this period and we project a further widening by 10.4 per cent over the coming decade. Growth in living standards of the top 20 per cent grew by around 22.1 per cent while the bottom 20 per cent grew by just 13.8 per cent