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Percentage of all people in poverty from 1999 – 2019

PovertyHeadline charts

This graph shows the percentage of all people in Australia in poverty from 1999  – 2019. The poverty line used is 50% of median income, taking account of housing costs. The lower (dark blue) line shows poverty rates measured using the pre-2007 ABS income definition, while the higher (red) line is based on the post 2007 income definition. The light blue line shows the quarterly changes in poverty rates during the 2019-20 period, when the impacts of COVID-19 lifted the poverty rate from 13.2% in the September quarter of 2019 to 14.6% in the March quarter of 2020, and the extra coronavirus income support payments introduced meant it fell to 12% – a 17 year low – in the June quarter of 2020.

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