RDP 2022-06: Do Australian Households Borrow to Keep up with the Joneses? Appendix A: Summary Statistics

Kim Nguyen

November 2022

Table A1: Summary Statistics – Full Sample
Mean of key variables by survey, in 2018 dollars
Household variable 2010 2014 2018
Age (years) 48.8 49.9 50.5
Male (%) 59.1 58.6 57.5
Married (%) 60.2 59.9 59.0
Number of children (if having children) 1.8 1.8 1.8
University graduate (%) 32.9 37.9 40.1
Labour force (%) 69.8 68.8 67.2
Employed (%) 67.5 66.5 64.9
Home owner (%) 66.6 64.4 64.4
Gross income ($'000) 89.3 91.7 92.8
Net worth ($'000) 789.9 776.8 919.0
Financial wealth ($'000) 294.4 330.2 380.9
Total debt ($'000) 181.4 182.7 200.3
Mortgage debt ($'000) 145.4 150.8 172.9
Home debt ($'000) 104.6 107.0 122.2
Other property debt ($'000) 40.7 43.8 50.7
Non-mortgage debt ($'000) 36.0 31.9 27.4
Credit card debt ($'000) 2.3 1.7 1.5
Hire purchase debt ($'000) 0.3 0.2 0.2
Car debt ($'000) 1.8 2.1 2.1
Business debt ($'000) 10.6 8.6 7.3
Investment debt ($'000) 6.8 5.5 3.5
No of observations 7,235 9,365 9,446

Sources: Author's calculations; HILDA Survey Release 19.0
Table A2: Summary Statistics of Households with Investment Debt
Mean and standard deviation of key variables, 2010 to 2018
Household variables Mean Standard deviation No of observations
Age (years) 48 16 2,115
Male (%) 60 50 2,115
Married (%) 60 50 2,062
Number of children 1 1 2,063
University graduate (%) 40 50 2,115
Labour force (%) 70 50 2,063
Employed (%) 70 50 2,063
Home owner (%) 70 50 2,112
Gross income ($'000) 95 72 2,115
Income ranking 3 1 2,115
Hand-to-mouth (%) 20 40 2,115
Investment debt ($'000) 7 47 2,115

Sources: Author's calculations; HILDA Survey Release 19.0