United nations hri
Social, economic and cultural statistics
Download 1.91 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- Graph 7
- Gini coefficient (relating to distribution of income)
- Infant mortality rates
Social, economic and cultural statisticsGraph 6Real net national disposable income (a) per capita
Source: Australian National Accounts. Consumption30. If a nation experiences income growth, there may be an increase in consumption or saving or both. Among the different forms of consumption, final consumption expenditure (FCE) is the most directly relevant to an assessment of progress. FCE is the acquisition of goods and services used for the direct satisfaction of individual or collective wants. It is distinguished from “intermediate consumption” (the using up of goods and services in the production of other goods and services) and “consumption of fixed capital” (depreciation). 31. Consumption in Australia grew throughout the 1990s. Between 1992-1993 and 2002-2003, real FCE per capita rose by almost 2.3 per cent a year. Graph 7Real final consumption expenditure (a) per capita
Source: Derived from Australian National Accounts. Table 6Real household final consumption (a) per capita
Source: Derived from Australian National Accounts. (a) Chain volume measures; reference year 2003-04. Gini coefficient (relating to distribution of income)32. The Gini coefficient in 2003-04 was 0.294 (Source: 6523.0 - Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia, 2003-04). This was not significantly different from that of the previous years. The Gini coefficient is a single statistic which summarises the distribution of income across the population. 33. The Gini coefficient can best be described by reference to the Lorenz curve. The Lorenz curve is a graph with horizontal axis showing the cumulative proportion of the persons in the population ranked according to household income and with the vertical axis showing the corresponding cumulative proportion of equivalised disposable household income. The graph then shows the income share of any selected cumulative proportion of the population, as can be seen below. Graph 8 Lorenz curves 
34. If income were distributed evenly across the whole population, the Lorenz curve would be the diagonal line through the origin of the graph. The Gini coefficient is defined as the ratio of the area between the actual Lorenz curve and the diagonal (or line of equality) and the total area under the diagonal. The Gini coefficient ranges between zero when all incomes are equal and one when one unit receives all the income, that is, the smaller the Gini coefficient the more even the distribution of income. 35. Normally the degree of inequality is greater for the whole population than for a subgroup within the population because subpopulations are usually more homogeneous than full populations. This is illustrated in the graph above, which shows two Lorenz curves from the 2000-01 Survey of Income and Housing Costs. The Lorenz curve for the whole population of the survey is further from the diagonal than the curve for persons living in one family households that contain one parent only and dependent children (they may also contain other children). Correspondingly, the calculated Gini coefficient for all persons was 0.311 while the coefficient for the persons in the one parent households included here was 0.259. Infant mortality rates36. The infant mortality rate (IMR) is defined as the number of deaths of children under one year of age per 1,000 live births. According to the United Nations, the projected world IMR for 2000-05 was 55 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. In 2004, 1,200 infant deaths were registered in Australia. In Australia, the IMR in 2004 was 4.7 deaths per 1,000 live births. This was half that recorded in 1984 (9.2 deaths per 1,000 live births). Over the past 100 years, Australia’s infant mortality has declined significantly. In 1904, one in 12 infants did not survive to their first birthday (an IMR of 81.8). By 2004, less than one in 200 infants did not survive their first year of life. (ABS, Deaths, Australia 2004 (Cat. No. 3302.0)). Download 1.91 Mb. Share with your friends:
|