Income percentiles · ATO 2023–24 · Updated July 2026
What income puts you in the top 1% in Australia?
Roughly $420,000–$450,000 a year in taxable income. The ATO publishes income in bands, so the exact top-1% cut-off can't be read off precisely — but $250,000 already puts you in the top 2.5% of Australia's 16.6 million taxpayers, and the interpolated top-1% threshold from the 2023–24 distribution lands around $450,000.
See your exact income percentile → — Free, instant, calculated in your browser from real ATO data
The income ladder, from the real ATO distribution
These thresholds come from ATO Taxation Statistics 2023–24 — the taxable income of every individual who lodged a return, not a survey. Note this is taxable income: salary after deductions, plus investment and business income.
| To be in the… | You need about |
|---|---|
| Top 50% | $58,733 |
| Top 25% | $98,000 |
| Top 10% | $149,000 |
| Top 5% | $193,000 |
| Top 2.5% | $250,000 |
| Top 1% | ≈$420,000–$450,000 (banded data — approximate) |
Why the top 1% number is fuzzier than the rest
The ATO groups high incomes into wide bands ($250,000–$500,000, then $500,000–$1m), so anything above the top 2.5% has to be interpolated. Independent analyses of recent ATO data put the top-1% mark near $420,000; our own curve interpolates to about $450,000. Either way, the top 1% earns more than seven times the median taxpayer.
It's also worth separating income from wealth. Plenty of top-1%-by-wealth households (think retirees with paid-off Toorak houses) report modest taxable incomes, and some very high earners have little net wealth. Top 1% by household net worth starts around $7–8 million on ABS survey data — a completely different club.
Age changes everything
A 27-year-old on $150,000 is further up their cohort's ladder than a 50-year-old on the same money. Among men 45–54, it takes about $219,000 just to reach the top 10% — while for under-25s of either sex, $80,000 is already close to the top 10%. Percentiles against your own age band are the fairer comparison, which is what our ranking tool does.
Common questions
Is the top 1% threshold based on salary?
No — taxable income, which is assessable income (salary, interest, dividends, rent, business income) minus deductions. A $450,000 salary with big deductions and a $300,000 salary with large investment income can land in the same place.
How many Australians are in the top 1%?
About 166,000 people — 1% of the 16.6 million individuals who lodged a tax return in 2023–24. Non-lodgers (many retirees, some low-income earners) aren't in the base, so against all adults the bar is slightly lower.
Is $200,000 a top 1% income?
No — $200,000 is roughly the top 4–5% of taxpayers. It often surprises people how far the top 1% sits above merely-high salaries: the gap between $200,000 and the top 1% is bigger than the gap between $200,000 and the median.
Top 1% income vs top 1% wealth — which is harder?
They're different races. Top 1% income (~$420,000+/yr) is dominated by surgeons, executives and business owners in peak earning years. Top 1% net worth (several million+) is dominated by long-run asset accumulation — property, super and businesses — and skews much older.