National Level CPI Component Analysis

• All CPI components have risen since 2020, though at different speeds.
• Housing and rents have increased faster than most other components.
• Electricity and transport have been highly volatile, with large quarter to quarter swings.
• Food and non-alcoholic beverages and housing were above the All groups CPI during 2020–2023.
• Rents rose rapidly before 2022 and again from 2024, and have remained above the All groups CPI since 2023.

Food, Beverages and Alcohol

• Hobart records the fastest rise at 7.31 percent, Canberra the slowest at 2.16 percent, a spread of 5.15 percentage points

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Selected Living Cost Indexes, 2025

Clothing and footwear household equipment

• Canberra is highest at 2.25 percent and Darwin lowest at 0.56 percent, a spread of 1.69 percentage points.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Selected Living Cost Indexes, 2025

Housing

• Perth is highest at 5.40 percent, while Adelaide shows a slight decline of 0.07 percent, a spread of 5.47 percentage points.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Selected Living Cost Indexes, 2025

Transport and Communication

• Darwin is highest at 4.60 percent, while Brisbane records a decline of 4.95 percent, a spread of 9.55 percentage points.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Selected Living Cost Indexes, 2025

Health

• Perth is highest at 4.29 percent and Canberra lowest at 1.77 percent, a spread of 2.52 percentage points.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Selected Living Cost Indexes, 2025

Education

• Sydney leads at 6.03 percent, while Darwin shows a decline of 2.99 percent, a spread of 9.02 percentage points.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Selected Living Cost Indexes, 2025

Median House Price vs Population Analysis

• Prices have outpaced population growth everywhere, but by very different margins
• From 2003 to 2023, median house prices rose much faster than state populations, with Hobart increasing 304.6% versus Tasmania’s population 19.8% while Perth showed the narrowest gap at 154.4% versus Western Australia 47.5%.
  
• The relationship varies widely by state, being strongest in Tasmania
  
• Population and prices move in the same direction most years, occurring in roughly 90% of years in Queensland and South Australia, about 85% in the ACT, NT and Tasmania, and around 65% in New South Wales and Western Australia.
  

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Selected Living Cost Indexes, 2025

State per-capita expenditure

• Over 1990–2024, the Northern Territory rose 125.7 percent (largest), while New South Wales and the ACT were about 65.7–65.8 percent (smallest).
• Since 2020, all states increased, led by the Northern Territory up 10.0 percent, South Australia up 8.8 percent, and Western Australia up 8.2 percent.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian National Accounts: State Accounts, 2025

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2025, July 30). Consumer price index, Australia (June quarter 2025) [Data set]. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/consumer-price-index-Australia/latest-release

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2025, June 19). National, state and territory population (December 2024) [Data set]. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/national-state-and-territory-population/latest-release, Australian Bureau of Statistics

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2025, June 10). Total value of dwellings (March quarter 2025): Table 2—Median price and number of transfers (capital city and rest of state) [Data set]. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/total-value-dwellings/latest-release

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2022, March 15). Residential property price indexes: Eight capital cities (December 2021): Tables 4–5—Median price and number of transfers [Data set]. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/residential-property-price-indexes-eight-capital-cities/latest-release

R Core Team. (2024). R: A language and environment for statistical computing [Computer software]. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.r-project.org/

Posit Team. (2024). RStudio IDE [Computer software]. Posit Software, PBC. https://posit.co/products/open-source/rstudio/

Xie, Y., Allaire, J. J., & Grolemund, G. (2020). R Markdown: The definitive guide. Chapman & Hall/CRC. https://bookdown.org/yihui/rmarkdown/

RStudio/Posit. (2024). rsconnect: Deployment interface for R Markdown documents and Shiny applications [R package]. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=rsconnect