The mining and housing booms have delivered the nation a threefold increase within the variety of households getting by on greater than $260,000 a year – and closed the space between the haves and feature nots.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show the choice of households earning a gross income of a minimum of $5000 per week climbed almost 300 per cent between 2002-03 and 2011-12.

The period covers both the housing boom, when median prices in Perth greater than doubled, and the resources boom.

There at the moment are greater than 312,000 households with an income of greater than $5000 per week. In 2002-03 there have been fewer than 82,000.

It was the fastest growing income group in the course of the period, which included the worldwide financial crisis.

The crisis did knock the nation’s highest income-earning households, with 336,000 still not back to their 2007-08 peak.

While the number with the best incomes inside the country has grown strongly, there has also been a drop within the variety of people on the bottom end of the income tree.

There was a fall of greater than two-thirds within the choice of households surviving on lower than $300 every week. Q4 have been driven partly by the lift within the age pension.

Combined, the full gap between the very best income earners and the bottom has closed slightly for the reason that GFC. ABS official Stephanie Cornes said since 2007-08 the typical weekly household incomes of low-income households had climbed 5 per cent.

Middle income households had enjoyed a 4 per cent increase but people with the very best incomes had seen barely any change.

“Overall, the proportion of total household income received by low and middle income households has grown since 2007-08, while the proportion received by high income households has fallen,” she said.

“These results are reflected in additional equal incomes across Australian households since 2007-08.”

There remains a tremendous gap between capital city and rural incomes, with urban residents enjoying on average a 21 per cent higher pay packet.

West Australians have the very best household incomes at $2045 every week, only behind the Northern Territory ($2182) and the ACT ($2437).