Middle-income trap refers to the economic growth strategies that transition low-income countries into middle-income ones but fail to transition the middle-income countries into high-income countries. We observe the existence of a middle-income trap for upper-middle- and lower middle-income countries. We examine the reasons for the middle-income trap using the Bayesian model averaging (BMA) and generalized method of moments (GMM). We also explore the transformation of middle-income economies into high-income economies using logistic, probit and Limited Information Maximum Likelihood (LIML) regression analyses. Random forest analysis is also used to check the robustness of the findings. BMA analysis shows that education plays an enabling role in high-income countries in determining economic growth, whereas the full poten tial of education is not fully utilized in middle-income countries. GMM estimations show that the education coefficient is positive and significant for high-income and middle-income countries. This implies that education plays a decisive positive role in achieving economic growth and gives a path to escape from the middle-income trap. However, the education coefficient for middle-income countries is approximately half that of high-income countries. Therefore, the findings of this study call for additional investment and focused strategies relating to human capital endowments

Key information about Australia Household Income per Capita

• Australia Annual Household Income per Capita reached 30,914.027 USD in Jun 2020, compared with the previous value of 34,767.371 USD in Jun 2018.
• Australia Annual Household Income per Capita data is updated yearly, available from Jun 1995 to Jun 2020, with an averaged value of 25,207.153 USD.
• The data reached an all-time high of 43,819.349 USD in Jun 2012 and a record low of 15,753.318 USD in Jun 2001.
• In the latest reports, Retail Sales of Australia grew 4.217 % YoY in May 2023.

Sydney had the highest median house value compared to other capital cities in Australia as of April 2025, with a value of over **** million Australian dollars. Brisbane similarly had relatively high average residential housing values, passing Canberra and Melbourne to top the pricing markets for real estate across the country alongside Sydney. Housing affordability in Australia Throughout 2024, the average price of residential dwellings remained high across Australia, with several capital cities breaking price records. Rising house prices continue to be an issue for potential homeowners, with many low- and middle-income earners priced out of the market. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Australia’s house price-to-income ratio declined slightly to ***** index points. With the share of household income spent on mortgage repayments increasing alongside the disparity in supply and demand, inflating construction costs, and low borrowing capacity, the homeownership dream has become an unattainable prospect for the average person in Australia. Does the rental market offer better prospects? Renting for prolonged periods has become inevitable for many Australians due to the country’s largely inaccessible property ladder. However, record low vacancy rates and elevated median weekly house and unit rent prices within Australia’s rental market are making renting a less appealing prospect. In financial year 2024, households in the Greater Sydney metropolitan area reported spending around ** percent of their household income on rent.

The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is a continuous programme of cross-national collaboration running annual surveys on topics important for the social sciences. The programme started in 1984 with four founding members - Australia, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States – and has now grown to almost 50 member countries from all over the world. As the surveys are designed for replication, they can be used for both, cross-national and cross-time comparisons. Each ISSP module focuses on a specific topic, which is repeated in regular time intervals. Please, consult the documentation for details on how the national ISSP surveys are fielded. The present study focuses on questions about social inequality.
The release of the cumulated ISSP ´Social Inequality´ modules for the years 1987, 1992, 1999 and 2009 consists of two separate datasets: ZA5890 and ZA5891. This documentation deals with the main dataset ZA5890. It contains all the cumulated variables, while the supplementary data file ZA5961 contains those variables that could not be cumulated for various reasons. However, they can be matched easily to the cumulated file if necessary. A comprehensive overview on the contents, the structure and basic coding rules of both data files can be found in the following guide:

Guide for the ISSP ´Social Inequality´ cumulation of the years 1987,1992, 1999 and 2009

Social Inequality I-IV:

Importance of social background and other factors as prerequisites for personal success in society (wealthy family, well-educated parents, good education, ambitions, natural ability, hard work, knowing the right people, political connections, person´s race and religion, the part of a country a person comes from, gender and political beliefs); chances to increase personal standard of living (social mobility); corruption as criteria for social mobility; importance of differentiated payment; higher payment with acceptance of increased responsibility; higher payment as incentive for additional qualification of workers; avoidability of inequality of society; increased income expectation as motivation for taking up studies; good profits for entrepreneurs as best prerequisite for increase in general standard of living; insufficient solidarity of the average population as reason for the persistence of social inequalities; opinion about own salary: actual occupational earning is adequate; income differences are too large in the respondent´s country; responsibility of government to reduce income differences; government should provide chances for poor children to go to university; jobs for everyone who wants one; government should provide a decent living standard for the unemployed and spend less on benefits for poor people; demand for basic income for all; opinion on taxes for people with high incomes; judgement on total taxation for recipients of high, middle and low incomes; justification of better medical supply and better education for richer people; perception of class conflicts between social groups in the country (poor and rich people, working class and middle class, unemployed and employed people, management and workers, farmers and city people, people at the top of society and people at the bottom, young people and older people); salary criteria (scale: job responsibility, years of education and training, supervising others, needed support for familiy and children, quality of job performance or hard work at the job); feeling of a just payment; perceived and desired social structure of country; self-placement within social structure of society; number of books in the parental home in the respondent´s youth (cultural resources); self-assessment of social class; level of status of respondent´s job compared to father (social mobility); self-employment, employee of a private company or business or government, occupation (ILO, ISCO 1988), type of job of respondent´s father in the respondent´s youth; mother´s occupation (ILO, ISCO 1988) in the respondent´s youth; respondent´s type of job in first and current (last) job; self-employment of respondent´ first job or worked for someone else.

Demograpy: sex; age; marital status; steady life partner; education of respondent: years of schooling and highest education level; current employment status; hours worked weekly; occupation (ILO, ISCO 1988); self-employment; supervising function at work; working-type: working for private or public sector or self-employed; if self-employed: number of employees; trade union membership; highest education level of father and mother; education of spouse or partner: years of schooling and highest education level; current employment status of spouse or partner; occupation of spouse or partner (ILO, ISCO 1988); self-employment of spouse or partner; size of household; household composition (children and adults); type of housing; party affiliation (left-right (derived from affiliation to a certain party); party affiliation (derived from...

AU: Exports: % of Total Goods Exports: Residual data was reported at 0.001 % in 2023. This records a decrease from the previous number of 0.002 % for 2022. AU: Exports: % of Total Goods Exports: Residual data is updated yearly, averaging 0.018 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2023, with 64 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 0.303 % in 1977 and a record low of 0.000 % in 2017. AU: Exports: % of Total Goods Exports: Residual data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Australia – Table AU.World Bank.WDI: Exports. Merchandise exports by the reporting economy residuals are the total merchandise exports by the reporting economy to the rest of the world as reported in the IMF's Direction of trade database, less the sum of exports by the reporting economy to high-, low-, and middle-income economies according to the World Bank classification of economies. Includes trade with unspecified partners or with economies not covered by World Bank classification. Data are as a percentage of total merchandise exports by the economy.;World Bank staff estimates based data from International Monetary Fund's Direction of Trade database.;Weighted average;

Australia Imports: % of Total Goods Imports: Residual data was reported at 0.000 % in 2023. This records a decrease from the previous number of 0.001 % for 2022. Australia Imports: % of Total Goods Imports: Residual data is updated yearly, averaging 0.002 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2023, with 64 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 0.306 % in 1963 and a record low of 0.000 % in 1975. Australia Imports: % of Total Goods Imports: Residual data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Australia – Table AU.World Bank.WDI: Imports. Merchandise imports by the reporting economy residuals are the total merchandise imports by the reporting economy from the rest of the world as reported in the IMF's Direction of trade database, less the sum of imports by the reporting economy from high-, low-, and middle-income economies according to the World Bank classification of economies. Includes trade with unspecified partners or with economies not covered by World Bank classification. Data are as a percentage of total merchandise imports by the economy.;World Bank staff estimates based data from International Monetary Fund's Direction of Trade database.;Weighted average;