Index · vintage 2026.1
Household Squeeze Index
Financial pressure on the household balance sheet. Scale 0-100; a higher score means greater pressure. Built to the Composite Index Construction Standard v1.0.
Australia
66.2/100
On 100 % coverage. Rank 3 of 30.
Scores
| # | Country | Score | Coverage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Switzerland | 81.2 | 75% | |
| 2 | Korea | 68.5 | 100% | |
| 3 | Australia | 66.2 | 100% | |
| 4 | Norway | 66.2 | 100% | |
| 5 | Luxembourg | 65.9 | 100% | |
| 6 | New Zealand | 63.0 | 75% | |
| 7 | Netherlands | 61.9 | 100% | |
| 8 | Japan | 61.9 | 100% | |
| 9 | Italy | 59.4 | 75% | |
| 10 | Finland | 58.4 | 100% | |
| 11 | Denmark | 58.4 | 100% | |
| 12 | Mexico | 58.1 | 75% | |
| 13 | Canada | 56.4 | 100% | |
| 14 | Portugal | 55.8 | 100% | |
| 15 | United Kingdom | 55.0 | 100% | |
| 16 | Estonia | 50.8 | 75% | |
| 17 | Austria | 50.5 | 75% | |
| 18 | Belgium | 49.5 | 100% | |
| 19 | Ireland | 48.8 | 100% | |
| 20 | Sweden | 48.1 | 100% | |
| 21 | Spain | 47.7 | 100% | |
| 22 | France | 47.0 | 100% | |
| 23 | Czechia | 46.5 | 75% | |
| 24 | United States | 45.9 | 100% | |
| 25 | Slovak Republic | 45.4 | 75% | |
| 26 | Poland | 44.0 | 75% | |
| 27 | Germany | 43.4 | 100% | |
| 28 | Lithuania | 39.6 | 75% | |
| 29 | Latvia | 38.8 | 75% | |
| 30 | Hungary | 38.5 | 75% |
Not scored — and not estimated
8 countries lack enough observed data to score. Under the standard they are reported, never imputed or quietly dropped:
Chile (25%) · Colombia (25%) · Costa Rica (25%) · Greece (50%) · Iceland (25%) · Israel (50%) · Slovenia (50%) · Turkiye (25%)
How it is built
Each component is normalised to 0–100 against fixed bounds set at creation, then combined with equal weights. Bounds do not move with the sample, so a change in score over time is a real change rather than a shift in the peer group.
| Component | Bounds | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Household debt to income | 0 to 250 | 0.250 |
| Years of net income to buy a home | 0 to 25 | 0.250 |
| Real wage growth 2010-2024 | -25 to 80 | 0.250 |
| Household savings rate | -5 to 20 | 0.250 |
Worked example: Australia
| Component | Raw | Normalised | Weight | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Household debt to income | 223 | 89.2 | 0.250 | published |
| Years of net income to buy a home | 12.38 | 49.5 | 0.250 | derived |
| Real wage growth 2010-2024 | 6 | 70.5 | 0.250 | published |
| Household savings rate | 6.1 | 55.6 | 0.250 | published |
| Score | 66.2 | 1.000 | 100% coverage | |
Sensitivity
Does the ranking depend on our choices? We re-run the index with each component’s weight moved 25 % either way, and with each component removed in turn, and publish what happens.
| Test | Result | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Weight perturbation, rank correlation | 0.987 | Strong. The order barely moves. |
| Weight perturbation, max score change | 3.17 | Marginal against our 3.00 threshold. |
| Weight perturbation, max rank change | 9 | Overstated: scores cluster, so small moves shuffle ranks. |
| Highest pairwise correlation | 0.421 | Well under 0.90. Components measure different things. |
Caveat
- This vintage does not fully pass our own acceptance battery. Rank correlation is strong at 0.987, but maximum score change is 3.17 against a 3.00 threshold. We publish it flagged rather than quietly loosening the threshold.
- Max rank change of 9 looks alarming but is an artefact: scores cluster tightly (Australia and Norway tie at 66.2), so a fraction of a point moves several places. The standard’s use of rank change as an acceptance test is under revision.
- Years-to-buy-a-home is tier 3 and mixed basis: home prices in market USD from a crowd-sourced source, income in PPP USD. Treat that component as directional. It will be rebuilt on an official house price index.
- Household debt is published for only 20 countries, so coverage is thinner than the other components and several countries fall below the scoring threshold.
Sources
| Component | Publisher | Tier | Period | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Household gross debt as a percentage of net household disposable income. | OECD | Tier 1 | 2024 | Nominal, national currency ratio; not currency converted |
| Household net saving as a percentage of household disposable income. | OECD | Tier 1 | 2024 | Net saving, national accounts basis |
| Cumulative change in real average annual wages between 2010 and 2024. | OECD | Tier 1 | 2010-2024 | Real, constant prices, national currency |
| Price of a standardised 90 square metre city-centre apartment divided by the annual net income kept by an average single worker. | Derived (Numbeo property prices; OECD Taxing Wages) | Tier 3 | 2026 | Home price market USD (Numbeo); net income PPP USD (OECD). MIXED BASIS - see caveat. |
Download and cite
Caveat (2026). Household Squeeze Index (HSI), vintage 2026.1. Retrieved from caveat.news/indices/hsi
Vintage and revisions
This is vintage 2026.1, generated 9 August 2026. Published vintages are immutable. When a statistical agency restates a figure we use, the revision appears in the next vintage with a changelog entry, not retrospectively here. If a restatement moves any score by more than 2.0 points we say so in the release note.