Australia has long been known as the “lucky country”, a place where hard work could provide a comfortable life and opportunities for future generations. People used to live stress free and could afford a comfortable life with minimum income. However, in recent years, rising housing costs and increasing living expenses have raised concerns about whether this dream is becoming harder to achieve. For many Australians, particularly young adults and first-home buyers, purchasing a home now appears significantly more difficult than it was for previous generations. While wages continue to grow, there is growing debate about whether they are increasing fast enough to keep pace with inflation and rapidly rising property prices. Using open data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), this visual story explores the relationship between inflation, wages and housing prices over time. Through a series of interactive visualisations, the story investigates whether Australians are becoming financially better off or whether the gap between income and housing affordability is continuing to widen. The story focuses on three key questions: 1. Are prices and living costs still rising? 2. Are wages keeping up with these increases? 3. Are housing prices growing faster than wages?
This story uses open data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The main datasets are:
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is one of the most widely used measures of inflation in Australia. It tracks changes in the prices paid by households for a broad range of goods and services, including food, transport, housing and healthcare. This chart provides the starting point for the story by examining changes in Australia’s CPI over time. A steady increase in the index indicates that the overall cost of living has continued to rise. Now it mean households require more income than before to maintain the same standard of living.
As living costs increase, wage growth becomes increasingly important. Higher wages can help households absorb rising costs and maintain their purchasing power. This chart examines Australia’s Wage Price Index (WPI), which measures changes in wages and salaries over time. While wages have generally increased, the rate of growth appears much slower than many of the cost pressures faced by Australian households. This raises questions about whether income growth is sufficient to keep pace with broader economic changes.
For Australian households, housing is frequently the biggest financial commitment. For many, owning a home is a sign of both long-term wealth creation and financial stability. By converting both metrics to a common index, this graphic directly compares wage growth and Sydney home prices. It is simpler to spot variations in growth over time when both series are set to the same beginning point. The graph shows the increasing difficulty faced by potential homebuyers and highlights whether housing prices have risen more quickly than wages.
In Australia, not everyone has the same experience with housing affordability. Due to variations in housing supply, local demand, economic activity, and population growth, property prices differ significantly between cities. The median home prices in a number of significant Australian cities are shown in this graph. The comparison shows which cities have seen the biggest increases in housing costs over time and reveals how affordability issues vary between places
The final graph summarizes the connection between housing costs and wages. The important question is whether the growth rates of both measures have been comparable over time. The graph offers a more comprehensive view of housing affordability in Australia by looking at both wages and property prices. For average income earners, especially younger Australians looking to get into the real estate market, home ownership becomes increasingly more challenging if housing prices rise significantly faster than wages.
The data suggests that while wages and living costs have both increased over time, housing prices have grown much faster. This creates a widening affordability gap for many Australians, particularly younger people hoping to enter the property market.
Although Australia remains a country with strong economic opportunities, access to home ownership appears to be becoming increasingly difficult.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2026). Consumer price index, Australia. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/consumer-price-index-australia/latest-release
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2026). Residential property price indexes: Eight capital cities. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/residential-property-price-indexes-eight-capital-cities/latest-release
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2026). Wage price index, Australia. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/wage-price-index-australia/latest-release
Wickham, H., Çetinkaya-Rundel, M., & Grolemund, G. (2023). R for data science (2nd ed.). O’Reilly Media. https://r4ds.hadley.nz/
Wickham, H., Navarro, D., & Lin Pedersen, T. (2025). ggplot2: Elegant graphics for data analysis (4th ed.). Springer. https://ggplot2-book.org/
RStudio and R packages including tidyverse, ggplot2, readxl and plotly were used to develop this project.
Generative AI was used for brainstorming, learning R syntax, debugging code and understanding data visualisation concepts.