The wage gap between people in Perth's richest and poorest suburbs continues to grow as more households are being pushed to the limit with their mortgage and rental repayments, new Census data released on Tuesday revealed.
Residents in the electorate of Cottesloe, including the suburbs of Claremont, Mosman Park and North Fremantle, earned the biggest salaries, with a median weekly individual income of $1012 reported in 2016 – compared to the state average of $724.
![The gap between Perth's richest and poorest suburbs is growing, new Census data revealed.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170701000556im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/0/i/c/p/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwzw8w.png/1498604688268.jpg)
The wage was nearly twice that of the lowest median income of $550, recorded in the electorate of Mirrabooka, which includes the suburbs such as Alexander Heights, Balga, Mirrabooka, Dianella and Westminster.
Compared to 2011 statistics, the data showed while most electorates' median income had increased, the gap between the rich and the poor had widened by an extra $65 a week.
The top ten electorates for personal income were dominated by the western suburbs, while the south-eastern and north-eastern suburbs made up much of the bottom end of the table.
University of Western Australia assistant professor of population and public health, Ian Li, said the results could have been influenced by a number of demographic factors.
"The things that probably would strike me as being drivers of those income factors is probably educational levels and other demographic factors like proportion of people from a non-English speaking backgrounds and migrants," he said.
In the Cottesloe electorate, 63.9 per cent of people were born in Australia – compared to the state average of 60.3 per cent, while in the electorate of Mirrabooka, 47.1 per cent of people reported being born in the country.
The area also had a strong Vietnamese (4.9%) and Indian (3.9%) population.
Mirrabooka MP Janine Freeman said youth unemployment, struggling small businesses and the number of unskilled migrants in the district was contributing to the areas having the lowest income rates in Perth.
One in four people in Mirrabooka was unemployed in late-2016.
"What the income shows is that people in the area do it tough, but they are really keen to work... there's probably a bit of underemployment going on, a lot of people talk to me about how they can get work but it's not the full time employment that they would like," she said.
"A lot of new migrants find it easier to run their own business and there can be quite complex issues for them.
"We've committed to a newcomer participation workforce project with the City of Stirling to be launched in the next couple of months and that will assist people to get the right mentoring and the right links and experience to be able to get their start in employment."
A freeze on TAFE fees and the Labor government's commitment to provide more jobs will also help residents in the area gain meaningful employment, Ms Freeman said.
Meanwhile, Western Australia has been named as the mortgage capital of Australia, with nearly 40 per cent of its residents having a mortgage.
Professor Li said the WA median income was increasing at a rate slower than that of the housing market, leading to an increasing number of Perth households falling into mortgage or rental stress.
As many as one in six households in some Perth electorates such as Victoria Park, Belmont and Cannington, were spending more than one third of their household income on rent, while a slightly lower percentage of households spent the same percentage of their income on a mortgage.
"Housing affordability has definitely out-paced income growth particularly within the past five to ten years," Professor Li said.
The census showed 39.7 per cent of WA households had a mortgage compared to the national average of 34.5 per cent.
Property Council WA executive director Lino Iacomella said the statistic showed the state government needed to invest more in public infrastructure to keep the state growing.
"This shows WA households are much more sensitive to factors that impact homebuying, including access to housing finance, the supply and diversity of new housing and the strength of local real estate markets," he said.
"The strong population growth since the last census contributed to the big increase in homebuying and stronger economic growth in WA. However, recently there is evidence that population growth in WA has slowed.
"Continuing infrastructure investment like public transport and enabling more housing diversity for small and large households are crucial to keeping WA growing."