Ten years of cost per person
Nominal dollars show what was spent at the time. Real dollars (CPI-adjusted to 2024-25) show whether government actually got bigger per person. Both rose; the real rise was 16.4%.
Source: ABS Government Finance Statistics, Australia, 2024-25 (cat. 5512.0), 55120DO021 · outcomes to 2024-25 · accessed 5 Nov 2026All governments, consolidated
Per-person Total GFS expenses, general government, all levels. Shaded years are the COVID-19 response period (2019-20 to 2021-22), when emergency programs such as wage subsidies lifted spending sharply.
Commonwealth government
Federal general government expenses per Australian. This includes grants the Commonwealth passes to states and councils ($152.2 billion in 2024-25), so it overlaps with state spending — never add the two.
2024-25: $27,200 per Australian ($745.0 billion); excluding grants to states and local government, $21,642. In 2015-16 the federal figure was $23,265 in 2024-25 dollars.
The numbers behind the lines
Every value is from series.csv. Real values in 2024-25 dollars.
| Year | All govts total | All govts / person | … real | Cwlth / person | … real |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | $598.5 billion | $24,952 | $32,313 | $17,965 | $23,265 |
| 2016-17 | $621.3 billion | $25,477 | $32,438 | $18,458 | $23,501 |
| 2017-18 | $645.0 billion | $26,052 | $32,537 | $18,736 | $23,399 |
| 2018-19 | $677.5 billion | $26,941 | $33,107 | $19,416 | $23,860 |
| 2019-20 COVID | $789.7 billion | $30,944 | $37,519 | $22,603 | $27,406 |
| 2020-21 COVID | $873.4 billion | $34,077 | $40,669 | $25,778 | $30,765 |
| 2021-22 COVID | $866.3 billion | $33,611 | $38,392 | $24,190 | $27,631 |
| 2022-23 | $885.4 billion | $33,640 | $35,904 | $24,305 | $25,940 |
| 2023-24 | $959.7 billion | $35,603 | $36,471 | $25,496 | $26,117 |
| 2024-25 | $1,030.5 billion | $37,622 | $37,622 | $27,200 | $27,200 |