Income inequality is becoming a problem in Australia, according to experts who spoke to SBS World News.
So far in 2017, SBS World News has provided Australians with the chance to compare incomes and income growth between local geographic areas.
But are the incomes in wealthier areas growing faster than the incomes in poorer areas?
This interactive provides a glimpse of the data that may help to answer that question.
How to use this interactive
Below is a map known as a 'bivariate choropleth’, a style designed to communicate relationships between two related measures.
In the below case, the measures are median income growth in percentage terms between 2010-11 and 2014-15, and the median income for 2014-15, based on data published by the ABS.
This map shows Australia broken into hundreds of small geographic areas. These areas are categorised into three equal-sized groups for each of the two measurements above - low, medium and high.
Take the Double Bay-Bellevue Hill area in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs - home to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull - which is an area of higher income but only medium income growth, so it is coloured purple.
The map highlights clusters of higher income and higher income growth areas (dark blue), and lower income and lower income growth areas (grey).
Please note you are seeing a simplified version of the content because you are unable to view the map. To see the map please use a modern browser.
Click on an area in the map above to compare income growth in the tables and charts below
Australia 13,102,895 earners 2014-15
| Incomes | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median | $40,770 | $42,987 | $44,778 | $45,828 | $46,854 |
| Mean | $52,643 | $55,559 | $58,061 | $59,802 | $61,036 |
Click on map or scatterplot to activate
| Incomes | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median | |||||
| Mean |
All of Australia’s small areas are plotted below to show relationships between income and income growth.
One area - represented by the blue dot second from right - is Port Hedland in Western Australia. The median income in this town started relatively high in 2010-11 and was even higher by 2014-15. People living there benefited from the mining and resources boom in the Pilbara region, as the town is the major port servicing the area.
At the other end of the scale, the Buloke region in north-western Victoria - the grey dot second from bottom suffered a year of flood, and two years of drought between 2010 and 2015. The median income actually dropped almost 10 per cent over this period.
Click on a dot to highlight that area on the map above.
Median and Mean
The mean is the sum of all the numbers in the set divided by the amount of numbers in the set. The median is the middle point of a number set, in which half the numbers are above the median and half are below. When looking at personal income both values are interesting as they can vary significantly, especially in areas with very wealthy people as high incomes inflate the mean.
Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2)
The areas shown are ‘Statistical Area Level 2’ (SA2) standard areas as used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. SA2 is a general purpose, medium-sized area, which is used to represent communities that interact socially and economically.