The top 20 per cent of Australian households have more than 200 times the savings of the bottom 20 per cent.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
This division is "stark," but it is a rarely discussed financial inequality, a report claims.
The Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, based at Curtin University in Western Australia, says much attention has been paid to the inequality of income and wealth in Australia, but little to inequality of savings.
Its report, Beyond our Means? Household Savings and Debt in Australia, shows the richest 20 per cent of households own more than 75 per cent of all savings in Australia, with estimated average savings of $1.3 million per household, while the poorest 20 per cent of households have estimated average savings of just $5,900.
The richest 20 per cent of households own 68 per cent of all superannuation savings, 62 per cent of all cash deposits, and more than 95 per cent of the value of trusts.
"Savings" is defined as the difference between disposable income and what households spend on goods and services. They comprise accounts held with financial institutions, the net value of a business, shares, debentures, bonds, trusts, superannuation funds, and loans to other people.
The publication comes just days after the International Monetary Fund said it now believes economic growth "actually declines" over the medium term if the income share increases for the top 20 per cent of households.
The Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre report shows the number of millionaire households in Australia (with savings or financial assets valued at $1 million or more, excluding the family home) has increased from under 300,000 since 2005 to almost 700,000 in 2015.
They represent just 7.6 per cent of all households, but they hold more than half of all savings, more than the total of all the other households combined (92.4 per cent).
The report also says the highest proportion of millionaire households is found in the ACT and Northern Territory, and the lowest proportion in Tasmania and NSW.
The fact that NSW has the equal lowest proportion of millionaire households is surprising, it says, particularly given NSW incomes are some of the highest, but property prices have much to do with the result.
"Remembering that real estate is excluded from our definition of savings, housing is the most probable reason for their low millionaire proportion, the rich in NSW have a larger proportion of their wealth in property than residents in other states," the report says.
Professor Alan Duncan from Curtin University's business school says with all households taking on greater debt over the past 25 years, the lack of savings for low-income households is a serious problem.
"The ratio of debt to disposable income for low economic resource households has deteriorated over the last few decades. In 1990, the average household debt represented less than six months of income for these households, but in 2015 it represents one and a half years," Professor Duncan said.
"The trifecta of debts, low or no savings, and low incomes presents many families with an unenviable challenge to maintain an acceptable quality of life for themselves and their children on a day-to-day basis."
