The latest report of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (Hilda) survey, released on Tuesday by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, confirms that Australia’s living standards are falling and that median household incomes have not grown since 2009.

The annual Hilda survey is one of the most important economic studies done in this country. Unlike the figures for household incomes done by the bureau of statistics the Hilda survey is a longitudinal study which interviews the same households each year. This provides intriguing data on the changes within households as well as across the nation. It also allows us to track the movements of people across occupations, locations, income levels and other socio-economic indicators.

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It is essentially a 7 Up series but done on a much larger scale and using data rather than documentary.

The latest survey reveals that the median household income in 2017 was $80,095 – a fall of 0.6% from 2016:

And while a one-year slump in incomes is cause for concern, the reality is that this is a very long-term issue as the Hilda survey reveals there has been no increase in median household incomes since 2009.

If we compare Australian and US median household incomes since 2001, it is clear that Australian households benefited greatly from the mining boom, while the US was mostly trapped in a period of stagnation before being hit by the GFC. But since 2014, while Australian median incomes have been flat, the US has seen solid growth:

What the survey also reveals is that since 2009, while the median household income has remained flat, the mean (or average) income has risen 3.4% (still a pathetic amount):

This divergence happens when the income of richer households grows faster than the median ones. In 2009, the income of households in the 90th percentile was 1.82 times that of the median household – now it is 1.91 times. This is not a massive increase and is roughly the ratio that was in place in 2001, but it has meant there has been an increase in inequality since 2009.

The Hilda survey calculates the Gini coefficient, which measures inequality on a scale of 0 to 1 (a higher value meaning more inequality), two ways – an annual level and a long-term measure, which looks at income over a five-year period.

Both measures saw an increase in 2017, but while annual inequality in 2017 is roughly around the level it has been for most of this century, the long-term inequality has risen for most of this century:

One aspect of long-term inequality is the intergenerational movement of people across income levels. The more equal a society is the more easy it is for someone who was raised in a lower income household to be in a higher income level as an adult.

The Hilda survey found that 38% of those who in 2001 were a child in household in the poorest 20% were in that same bottom quintile when an adult in 2017.

Conversely, 31% of those who were in the top income quintile as a child were also in that quintile as an adult:

As the authors note, there are “clear indications of a positive correlation between parental income and the income of children in later life”.

Interestingly they found that mothers and daughters were more strongly correlated than fathers and sons.

The survey found that female children were more correlated to their parent’s incomes than were male children – suggesting that it is easier for boys to break out of the cycle than for girls. It also found that “correlation between parent and child labour market earnings is higher for mothers than fathers” – ie children were more likely to follow the income level of their mother than their father.

The Hilda survey also provides data on the median disposable income for all types of households.

The overall median household income of $80,095 is not a perfect guide for living standards – it is a median of all Australian households with no regard for size. The median equivalised disposable income in 2017 (ie for a single person) was $47,875. It also reveals the danger of referring to the mean or average as “middle”. The mean disposable income for a single person was $55,216 – some 15% higher than the median.

According to the Hilda survey the median disposable income for a family of four was $100,538:

The level of income is also very much dependent upon where you live. The Northern Territory (with its high level of public sector/military workers in Darwin) and the ACT have the highest median incomes in Australia. But overwhelmingly incomes are higher in capital cities than in rural areas:

The data also suggests that Victoria has seen the highest growth of incomes in the nation over the past five years (excluding the small base of the NT), while the ACT, despite its high median income, has seen the biggest fall.

The annual Hilda survey always provides a plethora of data for economics and policy makers. What it mostly highlights this year is yet more confirmation that household incomes and living standards have absolutely stagnated since the end of the GFC.

Without a significant increase in incomes driven by wages in the next few years, we face a lost decade of living standard growth.

• Greg Jericho writes on economics for Guardian Australia