Secure and affordable housing is fundamental to the well-being of Australians. Home ownership continues to be a widely held aspiration in Australia, as it affords owners with security of housing tenure and both long-term social and economic benefits.

Census data provides the most comprehensive long-term view of housing tenure among Australian households and can be used to show the rate of home ownership for each birth cohort at different ages.

Home ownership rates refer to the year the household reference person was born.  That is, the number of private dwellings by age of household reference person and tenure type was used to calculate the proportion of home owners of specific age groups from total households. Note that the source data excludes where age was not stated, and data for the 1991 time point was interpolated.

Census data on home ownership rates in Australia is also used in the following dashboard menu options: Home ownership by age group, Indigenous home ownership by birth cohort and Indigenous home ownership by age group.

See AIHW - Australia’s welfare 2023: Home ownership and housing tenure snapshot for further information. Source reference Figure 2 data table, from Figure 2: Home ownership rate by birth cohort and age group.