Income percentiles · ATO 2023–24 · Updated July 2026
Income percentile by age: the fair comparison
Comparing your income to all of Australia flatters the young and humbles the mid-career. The fair test is your own age band: $80,000 is top-25% money at 27 but middle-of-the-pack for men at 47. The table below gives the median and top-10% marks for every band, straight from ATO 2023–24 tables.
Get your exact percentile by age → — Age, sex, state and household — seven metrics, free
Median and top-10% by age band
Each row is its own complete distribution — the full percentile curves (28 anchor points per cohort) power the ranking tool, so you can place any income at any age precisely, not just against these landmarks.
| Age band | Median (M) | Median (F) | Top 10% (M) | Top 10% (F) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 25 | $33,185 | $29,422 | $76,700 | $66,500 |
| 25–34 | $69,126 | $55,835 | $140,100 | $112,300 |
| 35–44 | $91,298 | $63,001 | $191,500 | $142,900 |
| 45–54 | $94,763 | $66,872 | $219,500 | $155,600 |
| 55–64 | $77,441 | $54,473 | $193,900 | $133,500 |
| 65+ | $35,982 | $32,248 | $133,200 | $105,500 |
The career arc in three facts
- The steepest climb is 25–34 → 35–44: the male median jumps $22,000 (32%) in a decade, the female median only $7,200 — the divergence decade.
- Peak earning is 45–54 for both sexes, but the top decile keeps stretching: the male top-10% bar rises another $28,000 from the 35–44 band.
- After 65 taxable income collapses not because income stops but because tax-free super drawdowns replace salary — a 70-year-old 'earning' $36,000 taxably may spend far more.
Common questions
What percentile is $100,000 at age 30?
Roughly the top 25% of 25–34-year-old taxpayers overall — about the top 22% of men that age and the top 12% of women. Nationally across all ages it's the top 24%. The gap between those answers is exactly why age-banded comparison matters.
Why do you split by sex?
Because the distributions genuinely differ — medians diverge by up to $28,000 in mid-career bands — and a percentile against a blended curve would misplace nearly everyone. The ranking tool lets you compare against your own sex, and you can toggle to see both.
Where does the data come from?
ATO Taxation Statistics 2023–24 Table 3A — the income bands of every individual return lodged, split by age and sex. It's administrative data covering 16.6 million people, not a survey sample.