Page 7 - 1. What Wealthy Means to Australians in 2023

Family formation was still popular, it simply couples in the city’s then burgeoning market
started later: after living together as a non- for 3-storey walk-up rental flats. In the 1960s
married couple, after travelling, after getting single 20-somethings typically boarded with
a degree, after finding the right job. The an older childless couple or more likely with
proponents of this new lifestyle were given a a widow.
new name; they were called dinks (pre kids)
Thirty-something baby boomers fully
then yuppies (post kids).
embraced home ownership in the late
By the mid-1990s life expectancy in Australia 1980s. Cities were changing; they reflected
had passed 75 meaning that retirees were demographic shifts.
more likely to think about life’s later years.
Out with the singularity of the traditional
The Superannuation Guarantee was nuclear family; in with periods in the lifecycle
introduced at around this time and for many when Australians lived as singles and couples
years it may have lulled middle Australia into (see Graphic 5)
the view that they didn’t have to worry about
The ideal of home ownership was still
retirement. They had super; they’d be fine.
popular but it was being pushed back to the
The rise of singles and couples opened up late 20s.
new opportunities in the 20-something and
By the 1986 census 69 per cent of housing
30-something stages in the lifecycle.
stock was either owned outright or with a
Home ownership rates dropped in the early mortgage, down four percentage points from
1970s as young people lived separately or as the 1966 zenith.

Graphic 5. Changing tribes: Household and family change, 1981-2021
Household types in Australia, 1981-2021 Family types in Australia, 1991-2021
1981 77.7 18.0 4.3 1991 54 31 13 2
1986 77.1 18.8 4.2 1996 50 34 14 2
1991 75.1 20.1 4.5 2001 47 35 15 2
1996 73.0 22.8 4.2 2006 46 37 16 2
2011
2001 72.1 24.0 3.9 2016 45 37 16 2 2
37
16
45
2006 71.7 24.4 3.9 2021 44 39 16 2
2011 71.5 24.3 4.1
2016 71.3 24.4 4.3 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
2021 70.5 25.6 3.9
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% COUPLES WITH CHILDREN COUPLES ONLY SINGLE PARENT FAMILIES OTHER FAMILIES
Source: ABS Censuses
6 What wealthy means to Australians in 2023