ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on regional differences in income poverty, and builds on earlier work by NATSEM examining this issue. Poverty has been difficult to study at a small area level in Australia due to a lack of suitable data. The chapter overcomes the data deficiencies by using spatial microsimulation techniques to produce synthetic estimates of income poverty at a small area level. The chapter uses updated methodology and more recent data to produce synthetic small area poverty rates for 2006. It presents results only for the four states and territories along Australia's eastern seaboard, which together make up approximately 79% of Australia's total population. The chapter provides details of the methodology used to produce our poverty estimates, and presents results from the modelling. It summarizes the material presented in this chapter, and discusses work still to be done.
