Poverty gap index at $3 a day in Australia
Australia: Poverty gap index at $3 a day was 0.6% in 2020. ▼ Falling
Poverty gap index at $3 a day in Australia, 1981–2020
Source: World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data. Measured in %.
Analysis
In 2020, poverty gap index at $3 a day in Australia stood at 0.6%.
Compared with earlier readings it is up 53.1% on the previous year and up 86.2% over ten years.
Over the whole period, poverty gap index at $3 a day in Australia peaked at 0.8% in 2003 and was at its lowest, 0.3%, in 2016.
That places Australia 52nd out of 120 countries with data for 2020, putting it in the middle of the range.
The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 13 years of available data.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980s | 0.6% | 0.5% | 0.7% | 3 |
| 1990s | 0.7% | 0.7% | 0.7% | 1 |
| 2000s | 0.6% | 0.4% | 0.8% | 4 |
| 2010s | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 4 |
| 2020s | 0.6% | 0.6% | 0.6% | 1 |
Countries ranked near Australia
More poverty & inequality data for Australia
- Number of income/consumption surveys in the past decade available via the World Bank 3 surveys (2025)
- Fertility rate vs. share living in extreme poverty 1.64 live births per woman (2023)
- Cereal yield vs. share in extreme poverty 2,690 kg per hectare (2024)
- Tax revenue as share of GDP vs. income inequality 30.4% (2022)
- Gender Inequality Index 0.056 (2023)
- Lifespan inequality: Gini coefficient in women 0.0712 (2023)
- Lifespan inequality: Gini coefficient by sex 0.0712 (2023)
- Lifespan inequality: Gini coefficient in men 0.0807 (2023)
- Share of government consumption in GDP vs. share of population living in extreme poverty 21.6% (2023)
- Income inequality: Atkinson index 0.1849 (2023)
Frequently asked questions
- What is poverty gap index at $3 a day in Australia?
- Poverty gap index at $3 a day in Australia was 0.6% in 2020, according to World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest poverty gap index at $3 a day recorded in Australia?
- The highest recorded value was 0.8% in 2003.
- What is the lowest poverty gap index at $3 a day recorded in Australia?
- The lowest recorded value was 0.3% in 2016.
- How does Australia rank for poverty gap index at $3 a day?
- Australia ranks 52nd out of 120 countries with data for 2020.
- Is poverty gap index at $3 a day rising or falling in Australia?
- Over the last ten years it is up 86.2%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
- Where does this Australia data come from?
- The figures come from World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Poverty gap index at $3 a day. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 13 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).
About this data
The poverty gap index is a poverty measure that reflects both the prevalence and the depth of poverty. It is calculated as the share of population in poverty multiplied by the average shortfall from the poverty line (expressed as a % of the poverty line).