Sydney's highest-income suburbs, 2021: Longueville first, five of ten in Lane Cove and Willoughby

At the 2021 Census, twelve suburbs in Greater Sydney with 1,000 or more residents had a median household income at or above $4,000 a week, the bottom of the highest household income band in the ABS's Census tables, against a median of $2,095 a week across Greater Sydney. Ranked by the share of households earning $4,000 or more, Longueville in the Lane Cove council area comes first, with 61.2% of its households in that band against 19.6% across Greater Sydney. Five of the ten highest are in the Lane Cove and Willoughby council areas on the Lower North Shore, two are in the Northern Beaches council area, Point Piper and Tamarama are in the Eastern Suburbs, and Greenhills Beach is in the Sutherland Shire.

Ranking suburbs at the top of the income scale

The Census asks for income in bands, and the household income bands in the ABS's Census tables, which Censible's figures are built from, end at $4,000 or more a week. A median household income that falls inside that band can only be reported as $4,000, so all twelve suburbs share the same median and a ranking by median alone would be a twelve-way tie. The ten suburbs here are ranked instead by the share of their households earning $4,000 or more, which is above 50% in each of them because their medians sit in that band. Suburbs with fewer than 1,000 residents are left out, because their figures rest on a few hundred households and can move a long way between Censuses.

The ten suburbs

1. Longueville, Lane Cove: 61.2% of households earning $4,000 or more a week
2. Riverview, Lane Cove: 59.9%
3. Greenhills Beach, Sutherland Shire: 58.1%
4. Balgowlah Heights, Northern Beaches: 57.9%
5. Castlecrag, Willoughby: 57.6%
6. Clontarf, Northern Beaches: 55.4%
7. Point Piper, Woollahra: 55.3%
8. Tamarama, Waverley: 53.9%
9. Middle Cove, Willoughby: 53.6%
10. Willoughby East, Willoughby: 53.3%

Each of the ten has between 2.7 and 3.1 times Greater Sydney's share of households earning $4,000 or more a week. They are small suburbs, with about 1,300 to 3,500 residents each, and together they had about 6,100 households that stated their incomes in 2021, or 0.35% of Greater Sydney's 1.7 million.

Just outside the ten are North Balgowlah (51.8%) and Seaforth (51.0%), both in the Northern Beaches council area, whose medians are also in the top band. The next highest medians below it were in Roseville Chase, at $3,964 a week, and Northbridge, at $3,914.

Change since 2016

Longueville was the only one of the ten whose median was already in the top band in 2016, and the other nine had medians between $3,261 a week in Middle Cove and $3,833 in Clontarf. Across the ten, the share of households earning $4,000 or more rose from 42.8% to 57.0% between 2016 and 2021, and across Greater Sydney from 12.0% to 19.6%, so the gap widened from 30.8 to 37.4 points while the ten's share fell from 3.6 to 2.9 times Greater Sydney's. The threshold is a fixed $4,000 in each year's dollars, so part of the rise in both comes from wages growing past it. Tamarama had the largest rise, from 31.6% to 53.9%, and Willoughby East the smallest, from 43.6% to 53.3%.

Greenhills Beach had almost no households at the 2011 Census, so its figures here start in 2016, and they rest on about 180 households in that year against about 340 in 2021.

Projections for 2026

On Censible's projections, which move incomes forward to 2026 with the ABS wage price index, the ten's combined share of households earning $4,000 or more reaches about 62.1% in 2026 and Greater Sydney's about 26.1%, with Greater Sydney's median at about $2,472 a week. Longueville stays first at 67.0%, and Greenhills Beach moves to second at 64.7%, just ahead of Riverview at 64.5%, all projections that the 2026 Census results will replace.

Each suburb's other Census figures, such as household types, housing costs and work, are in the Censible app, set beside Greater Sydney and the 2011 and 2016 Censuses.

What to watch in the 2026 Census

With twelve suburbs sharing the top band in 2021, whether the ABS raises its highest household income band will decide how far the 2026 results can separate them, and the first 2026 Census results arrive in June 2027.

Method

Figures are for suburbs in Greater Sydney, the ABS's capital city area, from the 2016 and 2021 Censuses, carried onto the ABS's 2026 boundaries with ABS correspondences. Medians are calculated from household income bands, and shares are of households that stated all their incomes. Suburbs with fewer than 1,000 residents in 2021 are left out, the ten are ranked by the share of households earning $4,000 or more a week, and the combined figures for the ten are calculated from summed counts. Council areas are those that contain each suburb on the 2026 boundaries, and the 2026 figures are projections, with incomes moved forward with the ABS wage price index. More on the method is on Data and sources.

Limitations

The Census records income and doesn't measure wealth, so property, savings and other assets aren't counted, and a ranking by property values would be a different list.

Household income is the gross income of everyone in the household, so a household with several earners ranks above a single earner on the same pay, and dollar figures are nominal.

Income is collected in bands, so medians are estimated within a band and every median at or above $4,000 a week is reported as $4,000. Households that didn't state all their incomes are left out of both the medians and the shares.

Greater Sydney's and Greenhills Beach's 2016 figures are estimates because their boundaries changed between editions.

Figures for 2026 are projections, and they will be replaced by Census counts as the ABS releases the 2026 results from June 2027.