The purpose of this report is to capture the dynamic state of poverty in Australia, using data from three waves of the Australian Census (2006, 2011, and 2016).

The authors compute community level poverty rates for each of the three census years and then study the extent to which the poverty rates in the community, over time, have fallen, remained the same, or have increased. They further critically explore where and at what rate communities across Australia are experiencing entrenched income-based poverty, and what communities are breaking these cycles.

Poverty is defined based on household income falling below 60 percent of median income, adjusted to account for household size.