Saturday, November 24, 2012

Income per Capita in Australian States

According to this nominal income per capita in Western Australia is double that in the US and in the ACT double that in the UK. This shows the overvaluation of the Australian Dollar but also the high incomes in these states. I find the numbers hard to believe though. Nominal gross income per capita has doubled in the last decade but only increased by 50% in the decade before. These also imply that academic salaries have fallen back a lot relative to averages in the last 15 years. Snork Maiden's salary (not counting superannuation (retirement) contributions is less than average gross income per capita now. My salary at the same rank was about 50% above it back in 1996 when I first worked in Australia. It's hard to believe that a professional salary is less than income per capita (which includes children, retirees etc in the denominator), but that is what the ABS claims.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That link looks like its gross product per capita. Comparing that to wages isn't really valid, is it?

mOOm said...

Gross state product per capita will be average total income before capital depreciation deductions per person. So, no you can't compare it directly. However you could look at income per capita in a household and compare it to net product per capita fairly legitimately I think.

Looking at the actual data, workers compensation per capita also doubled since 2002 to $56563. This will include super contributions etc.

What doesn't double is final consumption. It rises 70%. Net saving and fixed capital consumption rises 287%. From $10k to $34k per person. It is now almost equal to final consumption. What is going on? Is this the effect of the rise in house prices that took place around 2004-5?

For Tasmania this item also rose tremendously but is still a much smaller share of income.