Housing costs are up with renters worst affected and financial stress is also growing, according to the largest survey of its type.
Every year, thousands of Australians answer a series of questions as part of the long-running Hilda survey.
As the families have expanded over the past two decades, the survey has grown to include about 17,000 people a year in 9,000 households, offering a unique insight into Australian life in the 21st century – and how it has changed.
Work rates reached record highs in 2024, with the survey showing 84.4% of working-age men and 76% of working-age women had jobs.
Aussie workers are better educated – more than half of women aged 25-44 now hold a university degree.
Men are better educated now than at the start of the century, too, but in every age group women were found to be “considerably better educated than men,” the report said.
Women who never finished high school have also dropped out of the workforce at greater rates: from 40% in 2001, to 48% in 2024.
Median disposable household incomes peaked in 2021, before being pummelled by soaring living costs from 2022. The Hilda survey shows the typical household was earning less in 2024 than the recent peak in 2021, but more than in 2019.
Australians report lower financial wellbeing on average than they did before Covid-19, despite higher median household incomes.
The share of people who could enjoy life “not at all” or “very little” due to their money management lifted from 11.3% in 2020 to 12.7% in 2024.