Where Do You Rank? Australia's Income Percentile Calculator
Enter your taxable income, age, sex and super balance. You get two answers: your income percentile among Australians who paid income tax in 2023-24, and how your super compares with the ATO median for your age and sex. Both come straight from ATO Taxation Statistics, the most granular official dataset there is.
Your details
Your income
Top 39%
You earn more than
61% of taxpayers
The middle sits at
$71,795
Top 10% starts at
$162,971
You earn more than 61% of Australians who paid income tax.
Out of Australians who paid income tax in the 2023-24 income year. Not everyone who lodged a return: those who paid no tax are not counted, which puts the middle higher than the figure you may have seen elsewhere.
Your super, against your age
$21,930 above the median
The median for women aged 30-34 is $38,070. This half is not a ranking: the ATO publishes the median for each age band, not the spread, so we can tell you which side of the middle you sit on and no more.
Worth knowing: that median is 11% below the one for men the same age. Why that gap exists.
Income figures: ATO Taxation Statistics 2023-24, Table 16B. Super figures: ATO Taxation Statistics 2023-24, median super balance by age and sex, covering Australians with a super balance above zero. Both published by the ATO.
How to use this calculator
- 1. The figure from your notice of assessment: what you earned after deductions, before tax. Not your gross salary if you claim much.
- 2. Super is compared by age and sex because the gap between the two is large enough that a single median would mislead half the people using this.
- 3. The income figure is a real percentile out of 99 published points. The super figure is only a position above or below the median, because that is all the ATO publishes.
Key takeaways
- The median taxable income among Australians who paid income tax in 2023-24 was $71,795, not the roughly $55,900 figure you usually see. That lower number includes every lodger, many with little or no taxable income.
- Earning $162,971 or more puts you in the top 10% of taxable individuals. The top 1% starts near $429,530.
- Super balances carry a large gender gap. Women aged 45 to 49 hold about 28% less than men the same age.
- This tool uses taxable income, not gross salary. Salary sacrifice lowers your taxable income and will move your percentile down.
Where the income data comes from
Most income figures in the media come from ABS survey data, or from ATO averages across everyone who lodged. This tool uses something narrower and more precise: ATO Taxation Statistics 2023-24, Table 16B, which covers only the people who actually paid income tax that year.
That distinction moves the numbers a long way. Statistics across all lodgers include people who filed a return with no taxable income, or whose income sat under the tax-free threshold. Put them in the denominator and the median drops sharply. The commonly quoted $55,900 reflects that wider group.
Table 16B strips those out and leaves taxable individuals: people with a positive taxable income and a tax bill. It gives a cleaner read on where you sit among people who are genuinely in the distribution as taxpayers. The median lands at $71,795, the 90th percentile near $162,971, and the top 1% around $429,530.
The data covers the 2023-24 financial year and is the most recent edition published.
What taxable income includes, and what it leaves out
Taxable income is not your gross salary. A few things shift it, and some shift it a lot.
What brings it down: salary sacrifice into super comes straight off the top, so sacrificing $10,000 drops your taxable income by $10,000 and your ranking with it. Work-related deductions and investment property losses do the same.
What never appears at all: your employer's compulsory super contributions, currently 12% of your ordinary earnings. They go to your fund without ever touching taxable income, so this ranking does not see them. Some tax-free government payments are outside it too.
So if you sacrifice hard into super, your percentile will read lower than your package might suggest. That is accurate rather than a flaw: taxable income is the figure the ATO measures across the whole population, which is exactly why it is the one this tool compares.
How your super compares with others your age
The super comparison uses ATO median balances by age and sex, from the same 2023-24 dataset. It tells you which side of the midpoint you sit on for people in your band.
It is a median comparison, not a percentile. The ATO publishes the median for each age and sex group, not the full spread. So the tool can tell you that you are above or below the middle. It cannot tell you that you are at the 67th percentile, and it will not pretend otherwise.
| Age band | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| 25-29 | $21,742 | $21,048 |
| 30-34 | $42,962 | $38,070 |
| 40-44 | $116,076 | $85,804 |
| 50-54 | $192,196 | $134,309 |
| 60-64 | $236,126 | $174,655 |
The gap is real and it is wide. It peaks in the 45 to 49 band, where women hold roughly 28% less than men the same age, and it is still more than $60,000 by 60 to 64. Career breaks, part-time years and lower average pay compound over decades. Why the gap exists.
One caveat worth holding on to: these are medians, not retirement targets. Sitting above the median does not mean you are on track for a comfortable retirement, and sitting below it does not mean you are in trouble.
Why there is no net worth ranking
You would expect a tool like this to rank your net worth too. We looked at it and decided against.
The most recent usable ABS household wealth data covers 2019-20. The ABS ran the 2023-24 Survey of Income and Housing but never published wealth outputs from it: renters were underrepresented and outright owners overrepresented, and reweighting to fix that damaged too much else.
That leaves a six-year gap covering a property boom and a run of rate rises. Ranking a 2026 net worth against a 2019-20 distribution would produce a confident answer that happens to be wrong. Better to say the data is not there than to show a number that looks precise and is not. If the ABS publishes a replacement that passes review, this page gets a third comparison. Until then you can still track your own net worth over time, which is the more useful habit anyway.
Sources
- ATO Taxation Statistics 2023-24, Table 16B for the income percentiles and the chart data for median super by age and sex
- ABS Household Income and Wealth, Australia, the 2019-20 release that remains the latest wealth data
- ASIC Moneysmart financial advisers register, to check anyone giving you personal advice
FAQ
What income puts you in the top 10% in Australia?
About $162,971 in taxable income, based on ATO Taxation Statistics 2023-24 (Table 16B). That covers taxable individuals only, meaning people who lodged and had a tax bill. The threshold drifts up each year as wages grow, so it moves when new ATO data lands.
What is the median income in Australia for people who pay tax?
$71,795 of taxable income in 2023-24, according to ATO Table 16B. That is meaningfully higher than the roughly $55,900 usually quoted, which covers all lodgers including those with no tax to pay. Neither number is wrong, they just count different people.
Does salary sacrificing affect my income percentile?
Yes, directly. Salary sacrifice reduces your taxable income, so your ranking moves down relative to where your gross salary would sit. Sacrifice $15,000 into super and your taxable income is $15,000 lower. The result reflects your actual tax position rather than your package value, which is the honest comparison given the data is built on taxable income.
How much super should I have at my age?
The ATO median for 2023-24 runs from about $21,000 in your late twenties to roughly $236,000 for men and $175,000 for women aged 60 to 64. Median is the fairer benchmark than average, because a small number of very large balances drag the average well above what most people actually hold.
Why does this tool use taxable income instead of gross salary?
Because that is what the ATO measures. The distribution in Table 16B is built on taxable income, so the input has to match or the comparison means nothing. Gross salary is not consistent across the population either: salary sacrifice, fringe benefits and packaging all change what it represents.
Is this financial advice?
No. Everything here is general information. Your percentile and your super comparison are data points, not recommendations, and they take no account of your circumstances, goals or debts. For advice about your own situation, speak to a licensed adviser and check them on the ASIC Moneysmart financial advisers register.
Related reading
Gross vs Net Income in Australia: What's the Difference?
Gross salary vs take-home pay explained for Australians. What gets deducted, a worked example at $85k, HECS, and why the difference matters.
Average Salary in Australia: What You Actually Earn (and Keep)
The average salary in Australia is around $100,000, but most workers earn less. What the ABS data shows by state, industry and gender, and after tax.
The Super Gender Gap: Why Women Retire With Less (And How to Fix It)
Australian women retire with about 25% less super than men. Here's why the super gender gap exists and exactly how to close it, strategy by strategy.
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Disclaimer
General information only, not financial advice. Figures come from ATO Taxation Statistics 2023-24 and describe the population that lodged and paid tax in that year, which is not the same as the Australian population as a whole.