What is the average Australian worth in 2026?
Dominic Beattie
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- Australia remains one of the wealthiest countries in the world with average net worth per adult among the highest.
- The top 10 richest Australians hold more wealth than the bottom 20% combined.
- Property accounts for more than half of Australian assets.
We all know we aren’t supposed to treat wealth and money like a competition, but if there was a list on the internet somewhere with every Australian’s net worth, would you honestly not be looking up your friends?
Well, no such database exists (at the time of writing). What does exist, however, is enough official data to compare your own wealth with the Australian average and households around the world.
What do 'wealth' and 'net worth' actually mean?
Wealth refers to the balance of assets and liabilities held by members of a household, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Net worth, on the other hand, is how much money you would have after cashing in all of your assets at market value and paying off all of your outstanding debts.
To work out your own net worth, you just need to add up the value of all the assets you own (property, superannuation, cars, shares, savings, etc.) and then subtract what you owe (home loan, car loans, credit cards, etc.).
Average household wealth in Australia
Using figures from the latest ABS household balance sheet and population data, the average Australian adult has a net worth of roughly $865,000.
That number comes from dividing the total household wealth (roughly $18.85 trillion) by the adult population (about 22 million) by late 2025.
The $18.85 trillion net worth was made up of:
- About $22.25 trillion in assets
- Less $3.4 trillion in liabilities
The majority of holdings were in property, with the value of land and dwellings at $12.53 trillion, which is more than half (56%) of the total assets.
See also: Australian Home Ownership and Tenancy
Let's look at the breakdown below.
Wealth in Australia per adult
Assets (non-financial and financial) | Total value | Per adult |
Land and dwellings | $12.534 trillion | $575,000 |
Other non-financial assets | $932 billion | $43,000 |
Superannuation reserves | $4.547 trillion | $209,000 |
Shares and other equity | $1.700 trillion | $78,000 |
Currency and deposits | $1.982 trillion | $91,000 |
Other financial assets | $556 billion | $25,000 |
Total assets | $22.251 trillion | $1,021,000 |
Source: ABS Australian National Accounts: Finance and Wealth, December 2025
Liabilities | Total value | Per adult |
Loans | $3.250 trillion | $149,000 |
Other liabilities | $151 billion | $6,900 |
Total liabilities | $3.401 trillion | $156,000 |
Source: ABS Australian National Accounts: Finance and Wealth, December 2025
Australian household wealth
Total assets $22.25 trillion - Total liabilities $3.40 trillion = Net household wealth $18.85 trillion (2025)
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How many millionaires are there in Australia?
Of course, Australian household wealth isn’t exactly spread out evenly. The higher up the ladder you climb, the more skewed the numbers become.
Minimum net worth | Number of Australians | Source |
US$1 million (AU$1.43 million*) | 1.9 million | |
US$10 million (AU$14.30 million*) | 42,789 | |
$1 billion and up | 56 |
*At exchange rates as of 22 June 2026
Australia’s wealth gap: The top 10 versus the bottom 20%
The last Survey of Income and Housing (SIH) from the ABS (covering 2019-20) found the bottom quintile of all Aussies held just 0.7% of the wealth.
If we apply this to the latest household wealth figure, that means the bottom 20% of the Australian population has a combined net worth of about $132 billion. That’s less than the combined net worth of the 10 richest individuals ($137.8 billion) in Australia according to the latest Forbes rich list.
- Quick note: The ABS cancelled the 2023-24 SIH release due to quality concerns, so no newer official SIH rate is available as of this writing.
Net worth in Australia by age
As you might expect, wealth in Australia is heavily concentrated among older households. This may be less surprising especially to those who have tried to buy property in recent years.
See also: Home loan statistics in Australia
An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) analysis of ABS data found households with at least one member aged over 65 had an average net worth 1.5 times higher than younger households in 2017/18. Over half (57%) of this difference was due to home ownership.
In 2025, the Grattan Institute released data that also demonstrated the extent of wealth inequality between young and old Australians.
Grattan Institute modelling found the median net worth of households with inhabitants aged between 25 and 40 was $238,000, while for households between 41 and 64 that number leaps up to $809,000, or $817,000 for people over 65.
Age of household members | Minimum net worth (Top 75%) | Median net worth | Minimum net worth (Top 25%) | Minimum net worth (Top 1%) |
25-40 | $78,000 | $238,000 | $554,000 | $3,091,000 |
41-64 | $332,000 | $809,000 | $1,495,000 | $7,710,000 |
65+ | $433,000 | $817,000 | $1,552,000 | $10,939,000 |
Source: Grattan Institute. Figures are not equivalised for household size.
How rich is Australia compared to the world?
It’s easy to say that we’re a wealthy bunch, but the real test is how we compare to other regions around the world.
According to the UBS Global Wealth Report 2025, mean wealth per adult in Australia was US$516,640. That puts Australia fifth, behind Switzerland (1st), the United States (2nd), Hong Kong SAR (3rd), and Luxembourg (4th).
Mean versus median: Wealth comparison
For the stats nerds, median is probably a more relevant metric than mean wealth. Mean or average wealth tends to be blown out by the billionaires at the extreme end of the scale. In the US for example, mean wealth per adult was US$620,654, while median wealth was just $124,041.
Per Forbes, there were about 800-900 billionaires in the US in 2025. Using data from the US Federal Reserve’s Distributional Financial Accounts, the wealthiest 400 alone currently hold more wealth than the entire bottom half of American households.
Australia’s median wealth versus the world
While there are still big imbalances, wealth in Australia seems to be more evenly distributed than most of the other richest nations.
The UBS Global Wealth Report 2025 shows median wealth per adult in Australia was a little over US$268,000. Only Luxembourg, with a population of well under one million, boasts a stronger median.
Rank | Country | Median worth per adult* |
1st | Luxembourg | $395,000 |
2nd | Australia | $268,000 |
3rd | Belgium | $254,000 |
4th | Hong Kong SAR | $222,000 |
5th | Denmark | $216,000 |
6th | New Zealand | $208,000 |
7th | Switzerland | $182,000 |
8th | United Kingdom | $176,000 |
9th | Canada | $152,000 |
10th | France | $146,000 |
Source: UBS Global Wealth Report 2025. *In US dollars, rounded to nearest ‘000
If you’ve crunched the numbers and found your wealth is below the national average or median, you’re probably still not doing too badly on a global scale. In 2024, the UBS report found:
- 82% of the global population has a net worth of less than US$100k
- More than 40% of adults have less than US$10k to their name
These figures are something to bear in mind the next time you’re envious of the size of your neighbour's garden.
Savings.com.au’s two cents
If you’re struggling with a mortgage, you’ll probably find someone telling you 'wealth won’t make you happy' extremely inane and irritating. When money means stability, security, enough food and shelter, more of it would probably improve your mood.
At the same time, money can clearly make people miserable. If wealth becomes the goal rather than the means, it seems pretty inevitable you will end up jealous of people with more of it.
One last thing to think about. A few years ago, Gina Rinehart was embroiled in a legal action brought by her two eldest children, who argued she took inheritance money they were entitled to. Would you trade your relationship with your parents or children for a $30-billion fortune?
Actually maybe don’t answer that.