Net worth is defined as the difference between Total assets and Total liabilities. Australia's Net worth at the end of June 2006 was estimated to be $5,336 billion in current prices, an increase of $448 billion (9.2%) since 30 June 2005. Most of this increase was mainly due to strong positive revaluations to land. Transactions (both capital and financial) contributed $58 billion to the change and other flows (including discoveries of subsoil assets) contributed $4 billion.
The levels of Net worth have been revised upwards since previously published. In particular, there have been significant changes to the value of Land due to improved estimation methods and expanded coverage. These changes have been described in the feature article: Valuing Land and Dwellings Owned by Households.
Balance sheets are also produced for each sector (Non-financial corporations, Financial corporations, General government and Households). In terms of dollar value the Household sector has the highest Net worth of all of the sectors. At 30 June 2006, in current prices, Household assets totalled $5,441 billion and liabilities stood at $1,012 billion. This resulted in net worth of $4,429 billion, an increase of 11.2% from the previous year. This was driven by increases in Land, Insurance technical reserves (due to increases in the values of both domestic and international shares and other equity underlying these reserves), Shares and other equity and Dwellings.
This page last updated 1 November 2007