How the numbers work

Every figure on this site comes from a table published by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) or the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). We download the official files, check that each table still has the layout we expect, and rebuild the site from them. If a table changes shape, the update stops and the previous figures stay up until we have checked the new ones.

Which people each comparison counts

The same income ranks differently depending on who it is compared with:

Taxpayers are the 13,239,911 people who paid income tax in 2023–24 (ATO Table 16A). The national, state and sex comparisons use this group.
Everyone who lodged a return also includes people who lodged but paid no tax (ATO Table 3A). The age comparison uses this group, so the same income ranks lower there.
Employees: weekly pay comparisons use the ABS Employee Earnings survey, which measures pay from a person's main job before tax.

Exact and banded results

For taxpayers nationally, by state and by sex, the ATO publishes the exact income at every percentile, so we can say "you earn more than 60% of taxpayers". For age groups, occupations and postcodes, it publishes income ranges, medians or averages. There we show the range you fall in, such as "between 44% and 49%", rather than estimate a figure inside the range.

Taxable income is not salary

Taxable income is income after deductions. Work expenses, donations and salary sacrificed into super lower it, and investment income raises it. For most employees, salary before tax is close to taxable income.

Occupations and postcodes

Occupations are as people described them on their tax return, grouped by the ATO. Postcodes are residential postcodes from the return. We leave out occupations and postcodes with fewer than 100 returns, and the calculator skips groups with fewer than 50.

Privacy

The calculators run in your browser. What you type is never sent to us or anyone else, never stored, and never put in the page address. See the privacy page.

Sources used on this site

Taxation Statistics 2023–24, Individuals Table 16: percentile distribution by state and sex (ATO, CC BY 2.5 AU). ATO page
Taxation Statistics 2023–24, Individuals Table 3: sex, taxable status, age and income range (ATO, CC BY 2.5 AU). ATO page
Taxation Statistics 2023–24, Individuals Table 8: median and average taxable income by postcode (ATO, CC BY 2.5 AU). ATO page
Taxation Statistics 2023–24, Individuals Table 15: income by occupation and sex (ATO, CC BY 2.5 AU). ATO page
Employee Earnings, August 2025, Table 3: distribution of earnings by industry (ABS, CC BY 4.0). ABS page
Consumer Price Index, Australia, September 2026, Table 17: quarterly All groups CPI (ABS, CC BY 4.0). ABS page
Wage Price Index, Australia, June 2026, Table 1: total hourly rates of pay excluding bonuses (ABS, CC BY 4.0). ABS page

When the figures update

The ATO publishes taxation statistics each June. ABS employee earnings come out each December, the Wage Price Index each quarter and the Consumer Price Index each month. We check for new releases every month.

ATO data: CC BY 2.5 AU. ABS data: CC BY 4.0. This site gives statistics only, not financial or tax advice.