To analyse the way income is distributed in Australia, I have aggregated 22 years worth of data (1994-2016) from the ABS survey of Income and Housing. Australian households are ranked from lowest to highest gross income and then divided into five equal groups with 20% of the population in each group (quintiles).

As shown in Graph 1, averaged across the years (1994-2016), households in the highest income quintile received 46% of total income. By comparison, households in the lowest income quintile received just 3% of total income. This pattern has remained relatively stable over the past 22 years, with only small variability per year.

Graph 1. Income share(a) as a function of quintile and year, for the period 1994-2016

Footnote: (a) Gross household income. Source: ABS Survey of Income and Housing, 1994–2016