Ex-serving ADF members' income and sources of income

This section explores equivalised total household income, demographic and service-related characteristics of ex-serving ADF members with at least one day of service since 1 January 2001. This work builds on previous findings about personal income by using equivalised total household income to account for different household sizes, composition, and sharing of income (ABS 2021).

For more information on the ex-serving ADF members population in scope for the analysis of household income, see Included in this analysis.

Key findings

• In 2016, ex-serving ADF members had a comparable or higher equivalised total household income compared with the Australian population.
  • The median weekly equivalised total household income category for the Australian population was $800–$999, whereas the median category for ex-serving ADF members was $1,000–$1,249 in 2016.
• When comparing ex-serving ADF members and the Australian population, higher household income was defined as a 2016 equivalised total household weekly income of $1,000 or more, which is above the Australian population median.
  • When adjusting for the effects of sex, age, and geographic location (using binomial logistic regression modelling), the odds of having higher household income were 77% higher (95% CI 74% to 79%) among ex-serving ADF members than the Australian population.
• When comparing among ex-serving ADF members, higher household income was defined as a 2016 equivalised total household weekly income of $1,250 or more, which is above the ex-serving ADF members’ median.
  • Binomial logistic regression modelling was also conducted to investigate whether there are any service characteristics associated with higher household income among ex-serving ADF members. When adjusting for the effects of other demographic and service characteristics in the model, the odds of having higher household income in 2016 were:
    • 61% lower (95% CI 59% to 63%) for those who separated as Other ranks than those who separated as Commissioned Officers
    • 45% lower (95% CI 41% to 49%) for those who served less than one year than those who served 10 years or more
    • 34% lower (95% CI 30% to 37%) for those who separated involuntarily for medical reasons than those who separated voluntarily
    • 14% lower (95% CI 10% to 19%) for those aged 35 to 44 years than those aged 25 to 34 years. These odds continued to decrease with age.

The interactive data visualisation (Figure 1) presents data on the percentage of ex-serving ADF members who had an equivalised total household income of $1,000 or more a week in 2016 by service characteristics, in comparison with the Australian population by demographic characteristics.

Figure 1: Percentage of ex-serving ADF members and Australian populations in 2016 whose equivalised total household income was above the Australian population median value, by service and demographic characteristics, Census 2016, PMKeyS

The interactive data visualisation (Figure 2) presents data on modelled ex-serving ADF members with equivalised total household income of $1,250 or more a week in 2016 by demographic and service characteristics. Select the Multivariate button to view differences between sub-population groups after adjusting for other factors in the model and use the Univariate button to view unadjusted results.

Figure 2: Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models of having equivalised total household income above the median category for ex-serving ADF members, Census 2016, PMKeyS

Included in this analysis

Analysis of household income is based on ex-serving ADF members with at least one day of service since 1 January 2001, who were ex-serving as of 30 June 2016 and alive on 1 August 2016 to ensure they were ex-serving and alive at the time of the 2016 Census. Of these 94,000 ex-serving ADF members, 76,000 ex-serving ADF members aged 17 years or over (81%) linked to the 2016 Census data in MADIP.

This resulted in 73,100 households with at least one member who had served in the ADF of the 8.9 million households in Australia.

Further information on ex-serving ADF members population scope, analysis period and methodology can be found in Technical notes.

Excel source data tables are available from Data.