The research behind our gift amount calculator
Our gift amount calculator says its ranges are based on Australian spending research and etiquette conventions. Here is exactly what that means: two real, dated surveys, what they actually found, and where we have used editorial judgement instead of a direct figure.
Source one: the FPA Gifts That Give report
Commissioned by the Financial Planning Association of Australia, conducted by The Curious Co. 1,000 Australian adults, fieldwork 2 to 10 July 2019.
This is the most granular Australian relationship-level gifting survey we could locate, though it is now several years old. It puts a significant birthday gift for a child other than your own at around $50, and for a teenager other than your own at around $66. It also shows partner spending ranks above spending on your own child, which ranks above spending on a parent, a pattern our calculator's relative ordering follows.
Read the FAAA republication of the report →Source two: the Gift Flick and Inside Retail survey
Commissioned by Gift Flick in partnership with Inside Retail. 750 Australian consumers, published 3 October 2023.
This more recent survey puts a birthday or Christmas gift for a family member at around $73, and a friend's birthday gift at around $50. Alongside the FPA figure above, this is what our calculator uses to anchor the adult range for siblings, close friends and in-laws, roughly $50 to $75.
Read the Inside Retail coverage →What we could not find, and what that means for the calculator
No Australian survey breaks gift spending down by the full relationship and age combination the calculator needs. Nobody has surveyed, for example, what a grandparent typically spends on an eight-year-old grandchild specifically. So the calculator works in three tiers: a small number of cells are anchored directly to one of the two figures above, a wider set are positioned relative to those anchors using the surveys' own ordering, for instance partner spending sits above spending on your own child, and the remaining majority are editorial judgement informed by ordinary Australian etiquette convention rather than a cited figure.
We also looked for and could not verify a well-sourced figure behind a widely repeated claim that Australians spend around $360 on birthdays. We could not locate the original methodology, so we have not used that number anywhere. The milestone birthday premium the calculator applies, and the $20 to $30 ceiling it uses for children's party gifts, are both editorial, based on general Australian gifting convention rather than a specific survey.
Try the calculator
Enter a relationship, an age and how close you are, and the calculator applies this research directly, telling you which parts are survey backed and which are judgement as it goes.
Open the gift amount calculator →