Wealth growth outstripping debt but inequality still rife
While Australian wealth is growing faster than debt, with Roy Morgan finding that average per capita net wealth was 30.5 per cent higher in 2017 than it was in 2007 in inflation-adjusted terms, the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer.
Although debts had grown relative to incomes over the decade, average personal assets were still worth 7.9 times average debts compared with 7.2 times in 2007. Roughly half that personal wealth was held in the form of housing, down slightly from 2007, and 21.8 per cent was made up of superannuation assets, up from 19.6 per cent a decade ago.
The growth in wealth was not evenly spread however, with the richest 10 per cent of Australians holding 48.3 per cent of net wealth in 2017 compared to 46.8 per cent in 2007, with the poorer half of the population’s share of net wealth declining from 3.9 to 3.7 per cent over the period.
While still not even, the Roy Morgan data painted a more positive picture for gender equality than in 2007. Women’s net wealth position relative to men improved, with men now holding an average of 10.6 per cent more than women compared to 26.5 per cent a decade ago.
Roy Morgan chief executive, Michele Levine, said the findings of the Roy Morgan Wealth Report showed that despite fear about the risks posed by high levels of debt, the data showed that a more balanced picture applied to Australia.
The report was based on over half a million in-depth face-to-face interviews conducted over the last decade.
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