Households form the common 'economic unit' in our society. Household Income is one of the most important indicators of socio-economic status. Australia-wide, First Nations households often report lower incomes than the average of all households, which is a strong indicator of disadvantage. However this does vary from place to place.

Income quartiles break the total households of Victoria into four equal groups for each Census and track changes in smaller populations against these thresholds. This enables visualisation at a glance of both the First Nations incomes in a local area against the total population, and compared to First Nations households in a wider geographic area. Due to the equal sized nature of the four quartiles over time, it also allows direct comparison of change over time, so you can see whether First Nations are increasing or decreasing relative to incomes in the state.

Household income quartiles datasets should be viewed in conjunction with the raw Household income as well as related topics such as Qualifications and Occupations.

A detailed explanation of how Household Income quartiles are calculated and interpreted is available in specific data notes.