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Australian spending habits

Page reading time: 2 minutes

Inforgraphic: What do Australian's really spend their money on?

What do Australians really spend their money on? (accessible text version)

General living expenses

In 2016, Australian households spent $666 billion on general living costs, including:

The average household is estimated to have spent $74,301 on general household living costs in 2016.

Weekly spending - state versus state

State by state spending on individual items

Weekly spending on perfume in each state and territory

WA and NT spend drastically less per week on perfume.

Average weekly Australian household costs

Weekly spend by life stage

  Lone person aged under 35 Couple only
(At least one person aged under 35)
Couple with kids
(youngest child under 5)
Couple with kids
(youngest child between 5-14)
Couple with kids
(youngest child 15 and above)
Housing $284 $381 $458 $355 $359
Fuel and power $24 $35 $48 $54 $53
Food and drink $122 $239 $282 $336 $332
Clothing and footwear $18 $54 $62 $64 $61
Medical and health expenses $23 $69 $85 $104 $110
Alcohol $22 $39 $28 $35 $47
Transport $97 $243 $247 $309 $292
Recreation $83 $176 $158 $263 $243
TOTAL $849 $1,572 $1,833 $2,085 $1,990

In the 3 minutes it took you to explore this infographic, Australian households spent $3,799,910.

Be the boss of your money. Do a budget.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics Household Expenditure Survey, 2015-16.

Note: The items listed in the 'Weekly spend by life stage' table do not add up to the totals because some categories were not included.The categories not included were household furnishings and equipment, household services and operation, personal care, miscellaneous goods and services and tobacco products.