Australia’s Hidden Cost Divide: Who Is Really Paying More?

---

Figure 1: Overall Living Cost Index Divergence

How have living costs tracked differently across household types since 2018?

---

Figure 2: Systematic Multi-Demographic Stress Matrix

A year-over-year heatmap revealing which groups faced cost acceleration — and when.

---

Figure 3: Sector Volatility & Quarterly Change Distributions

Which commodity sectors show the most price volatility over 2018–2026?

---

Figure 4: Living Cost Velocity (YoY % Growth Trends)

How fast are living costs growing year-over-year — and which household type is accelerating fastest?

---

Figure 5: Fixed Cost Structural Premium Divergence

Is the gap between insurance and mortgage cost indexes widening?

---

Data Source

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2024). Selected Living Cost Indexes, Australia (Cat. No. 6467.0). ABS. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/selected-living-cost-indexes-australia/latest-release

All visualisations produced in R using native plotly. Colour palette aligned with The Conversation brand guide.