A cycling jaunt One of my pastimes and outlets is cycling along rail trails. They are peaceful and you get a chance to see some amazing Australian countryside.I recently rode to Mansfield in Victoria along what is called ‘The Great Victorian Rail Trail’. There is some spectacular scenery and impressive engineering feats, the chief amongst them being the bridge across the Eildon Dam at Bonnie Doon (How’s the Serenity!).This trip made me reflect on the demographic changes that have occurred in the region and divergent patterns of population growth in these two centres over time. Understanding regional growth To provide context to the nature of regional growth in…
Tag: Census
With current talks of a housing crisis, there have been discussions around rent freezes, incentives to increase supply of housing or slowing down the intake of overseas migrants. But one factor which is not often discussed is Australia’s use of unoccupied dwellings.So today, we ask the question – where are the unoccupied dwellings and why are they unoccupied? Are they significant in talks around the cost of living?Starting with New South Wales, we will be using 2021 Census data to determine which suburbs have the highest vacancies and examine how this phenomenon changes across localities. But before we jump into the list, let’s first talk…
Many people will be aware that Australia’s population growth has rebounded after the lean COVID-19 years. Unprecedented levels of overseas migration have reversed the minimal population growth from the June Quarter of 2020 to the September Quarter of 2021. The strength of the rebound has come as a bit of a surprise, given the levels of pessimism regarding Australia’s demographic and economic outlook during the peak of the pandemic only two years ago. The increase has been unprecedented with the latest data showing a net migration gain to Australia of almost 387,000 people in the year ending December 2022. This is the highest gain to…
Much has been spoken about the changes in development patterns across Australia due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, we analyse dwelling growth in New South Wales and Sydney to discover how development patterns have changed over the last three Census periods. How did we do it? We have allocated all ABS SA2 geographies in Sydney and Regional NSW in 2021 to a series of categories:In Sydney by sector (inner, northern, south-western etc.) and ring (inner, outer etc.)In regional NSW by size of settlement, areas along the coast, areas around Sydney and remaining areasSA2s were allocated for 2016 and 2011 and ABS State Suburbs…
The rate of population growth in Tasmania accelerated rapidly during the 2016-2021 period. The growth rate of 9.3% or 47,610 persons was remarkable after a relatively sluggish previous decade where the State’s population grew by only 33,480. The fastest growing Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Tasmania were a combination of smaller rural LGAs and areas on the edge of Hobart and Launceston. However, the fastest growing LGA in Tasmania between 2016 and 2021 was Central Highlands (17.5%). Almost all LGAs in Tasmania benefited from the large overseas and interstate migration gains to the State that preceded the COVID-19 pandemic. The greatest gains in net terms…
What we’ve seen so far? The 2016 Census recorded low unemployment and underemployment rates, with a marginal drop from that of previous years.Unemployment rates have continued to be on the low since the 2016. While unemployment soared in the wake of Australia’s border closures, the economy witnessed a quick recovery with employment bouncing back to near pre-Covid levels. In light of the recurring lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 and the return of the international workforce back to their home countries, the available casual /part time workforce contracted. Underemployment rates followed a similar trend to unemployment rates since the last Census. While it’s promising that underemployment…
Those of you who are children of the 80s will remember the Simple Minds hit, ‘Don’t you forget about me’, a song made extra famous by the film, the Breakfast Club.On Tuesday August 10, 2021, the Australian Census will be conducted. Please don’t forget to ‘fill it in’. Hopefully, you have already received your log-in details to complete the form electronically.The value of the Census is immense to those planning for services and making investments in the both the public and private sector. It provides great continuity of data (every five years since 1961) and is really the only definitive data source in terms of…