Poverty in Australia

Poverty in Australia refers to the incidence and measurement of relative poverty within Australia. Relative income poverty is typically measured as the percentage of the population earning less than the median wage of the working population.

In 2023, the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) released a report stating that relative poverty was increasing in Australia. It estimated that as of 2019–2020, 3.3 million people, or 13.4% of the population, were living below the internationally accepted relative poverty threshold of 50% of a country's median income. The report also estimated that 761,000 children (16.6%) under the age of 15 were living in relative poverty.

Defining poverty

The primary method of measuring poverty is by establishing a poverty line and determining how many people fall below it. Poverty lines can be set as either absolute or relative, but Australia does not have an official poverty line of either type. The ACOSS/UNSW report series, entitled Poverty in Australia uses two poverty lines and also accounts for people's housing costs. One poverty line, used by The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and in this study, is set at 50% of the median household income, while the other is set at 60% of the median income.

Absolute poverty, extreme poverty

First introduced in 1990, the "dollar-a-day" poverty line measured absolute poverty according to the standards of the world's poorest countries.