KPL
(KPL/Xinhua) An estimated 456,000 people in the Australian state of Western Australia, including almost 99,000 children, are living in poverty in 2026 as rising housing costs and inadequate household incomes deepen financial hardship, according to a new report.
The 2026 Poverty Snapshot, released by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Center, found that 15.1 percent of the state's population lived in poverty, up from 11.8 percent in 2021. The number has increased by about 145,000, or 47 percent, over five years, according to a statement released Monday by Australia's Curtin University.
The report estimated that around 180,000 Western Australians were living in deep poverty, while more than 650,000 had incomes below 60 percent of the national median after housing costs.
The state capital Perth's median weekly rent reached 720 Australian dollars (about 502 U.S. dollars) in June 2026, having more than doubled since June 2020. More than one in four private renters in the state were living in poverty, the report found.
Children faced particularly severe hardship, with almost half of those living in poverty in deep poverty, compared with about one in four in 2021. Children in poverty faced an average household income shortfall of 224 Australian dollars a week.
The report called for expanded social and affordable housing, stronger support for households experiencing rental stress and measures to ensure incomes keep pace with living costs.
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