The proportion of households experiencing housing stress by region, tenure and dwelling type are derived from The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. A household is considered in housing stress if housing costs such as mortgage repayments or rent are more than 30% of the household disposable income, and the household is in the bottom 40% of the equivalised income distribution (disposable income adjusted by household needs). As this measure is concerned with multiple kinds of housing costs, it may differ significantly from measures published in the Low income rental households in rental stress dashboard which only focuses on rental costs.

Started in 2001, the HILDA Survey is a nationally-representative household-based panel study that collects valuable information about economic and personal well-being, labour market dynamics and family life from participants annually. It aims to tell the stories of the same group of Australians over the course of their lives. The HILDA Survey is funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Social Services. The Melbourne Institute is responsible for the design and management of the Survey. Data presented here are sourced from the HILDA General Release 21 unit record files.

HILDA Survey data are also used in the following dashboard menu options: Housing costs as a proportion of household disposable income (HILDA) and Persistence of housing stress - low income households.

See the Australian Data Archive (https://ada.edu.au/household-income-and-labour-dynamics-in-australia-hilda-survey), HILDA Statistical reports (https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/hilda/publications/hilda-statistical-reports) and the HILDA Survey User Manual (https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/hilda/for-data-users/user-manuals) for further information, including in-depth commentary and analysis, in particular source data quality information. For access to the HILDA unit record data, contact the National Centre for Longitudinal Data Dataverse.