Poverty in Australia

The ‘Poverty in Australia 2022’ report is the latest in the Poverty in Australia series, part of the Poverty and Inequality Partnership between the Australian Council of Social Service and the University of NSW (Sydney). The report provides a brief overview of levels of poverty – overall and among adults and children – following the recent release of Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data on household incomes in 2019-20. It examines trends in poverty since 1999, and through each quarter of 2019-20.

The report’s principal findings are:

• More than one in eight people in Australia (13.4 per cent) lived below the poverty line in 2019-20, the first year of the pandemic. That amounts to 3,319,000 people.
• One in six children (16.6 per cent) live in poverty. That amounts to 761,000 children.
• The poverty rate soared to 14.6 per cent in the March quarter of 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions, but it fell to 12 per cent - a 17 year low - in the June quarter of 2020 due to boosted income support payments
• The boosted payments brought 646,000 people – or 2.6 per cent of all people – out of poverty.
• The child poverty rate rose from 16.2 per cent in the September quarter of 2019 to 19 per cent in the March quarter of 2020, then fell to 13.7 per cent – a two-decade low – in June 2020.
• Average weekly incomes of people in poverty (from different-sized families) are $304 below the poverty line. This is known as the poverty gap.
• The poverty gap increased steadily from $168 a week in 1999 to $323 in March 2020 and fell to $310 in June 2020 due to the extra COVID-19 income support.

You can access the report here: https://povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au/a-snapshot-of-poverty-in-australia-2022/

• Topics:

• Living and Lifestyle