Rich suburbs, poor suburbs? Small area poverty estimates for Australia's eastern seaboard in 2006

This study used spatial microsimulation methodology to produce synthetic estimates of income poverty at a small area level in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory. The results may contribute to the research about geographic differences in advantage and disadvantage. Data from income surveys were reweighted to small area benchmarks derived from the Australian census. The paper details this methodology and presents some initial results demonstrating substantial geographic differences in the distribution of income poverty. It also outlines work that still needs to be done.