Financial Disadvantage in Australia - 1999

This is the first edition of an annual, comprehensive report on financial disadvantage among Australia's children and adults. The key goal of this annual report is to provide authoritative and up-to-date estimates of financial disadvantage (or 'poverty') in Australia. Section 2 of this report looks at what types of families are in poverty in Australia now, including the most common characteristics of families in poverty. It also examines what types of families face the highest risk of being in poverty. Section 3 discusses the depth of poverty in Australia – how far below the poverty line those families in poverty actually are. Finally, Section 4 summarises the findings.

The measurement of poverty is not straightforward. Part B of this report provides more details about the methodology and data used in this report. Because there is no consensus in Australia about the most appropriate poverty line to use, Part C provides poverty estimates for four different poverty lines. These are the half average income, the Henderson, the half median Henderson income, and the half OECD median income poverty lines, both before and after-housing.