This is according to the release of the Australian Taxation Office’s latest statistics, which were based on 2015-2016 tax returns.

The data revealed 4688 individuals sat in the $18,201 to $37,000 taxable income bracket and 5793 individuals in the $37,001 to $80,000 bracket.

This equated to 65.6 per cent of those taxed in this period.

The lowest bracket ($18,200 or less) registered 22.9 per cent or 3,669 individuals.

In the Great Lakes area (postcode 2428), 63 per cent of individuals were in the middle taxable income brackets.

In the Wingham area, the distribution of taxable income was steady, with 25 per cent earning less than $18,200, 28 per cent in the next bracket and 37 per cent in the middle bracket.

In the Gloucester/Barrington population, almost 60 per cent of taxed individuals are middle income earners.

For the Mid Coast area combined, 63.8 per cent of the taxpayer population were rated as middle income.

This included areas such as Harrington, Nabiac, Bulahdelah and Seal Rocks.

At the top end of the scale, 153 people (1.3 per cent) had taxable income of over $180,000 (1.2 per cent) in the Great Lakes area.

In the Taree area, 169 people (1.05 per cent) registered in this bracket. 

These numbers dropped across the region, notably 33 in the Gloucester/Barrington area and 25 in the Wingham area.

A total of 432 taxed individuals earned $180,000 or more across the region (or just over one per cent). 

Across NSW, this trend rarely changed except for some areas of Sydney and the Central Coast.

The Cronulla area registered six per cent of the taxed population in the top bracket. A total of 39,662 individuals were taxed during this period.

Sydney’s Mount Druitt area had 72.5 per cent of tax payers sit in the middle brackets.

The Mount Pritchard and Liverpool area boasted 67.4 per cent, despite a tax payer population of almost 50,000 people.

Despite these statistics being derived from 2015-2016 tax returns, the tax brackets have not changed.

The data also revealed the top occupations by average taxable income across the country.

Surgeons ($393,467) and anaesthetists ($359,056) topped the list ahead of internal medical specialists ($291,140), financial dealers ($263,309) and psychiatrists ($211,024).