Why do people overseas think most Australians are rich?

[Anonymous]

In Australia, there seems to be a clear distinction between the working class, middle class, upper-middle class, and the established affluent. These differences can often be seen through clothing styles, postcodes, occupations, the schools people attend (public, private, elite private, or selective schools), social networks, and even the brands they use.

However, many people outside Australia seem to view Australians as generally wealthy. Why is this the case? What contributes to the perception that most Australians are rich, despite the obvious class differences and varying levels of wealth and opportunity within Australian society?

[FreyaRed]

People imagine GDP reflects life quality among all social classes. However there is factor of wealth distribution.
I think lower class Greek has better live quality than lower class American despite per capita GDP is much higher in US than in Greece.
I have no clue about Australia but I think wealth distribution in Australia isn't that imbalanced like in US.

[petitedollbabee]

Bigger cities in Australia are expensive to live in, such as Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, etc. People forget that small cities and towns exist too, and they assume everyone must live in the main cities.
And wealth doesn’t always refer to money - Australians are indeed wealthy people. They live in a country that’s relatively clean with the air, land and water, when you compare to USA, UK, etc. And many parts of Australia are beautiful.

[FrodoSkywalker007]

Likely for the same reason people assume all Americans are rich