Interactive: What new census data tells you about your suburb
By Craig Butt and Nigel Gladstone
How do people in your area get to work? What do they do for a living? Do they mostly work full-time or part-time? And how long have they lived in the area?
Our interactive can answer all of these questions for you using new data from the 2021 census, which we have broken down by suburb across all of NSW.
This online tool builds on what we published back in July when the first batch of 2021 census data was released, and also displays information on things like income, religion, average age and homeownership.
Simply type the name of your suburb into the search box below to see what the data shows:
EMPLOYMENT
The average rate of full-time employment in Australia and NSW was about 55 per cent, but these rates vary from 40 to 70 per cent throughout the state.
Full-time workers made up 70 per cent or more of people aged 15 or older in four areas of Sydney: Erskineville/Alexandria, Crows Nest/Waverton, St Leonards/Naremburn, and North Sydney/Lavender Bay.
The lowest rates of full-time employment were in Sydney’s west, with four areas registering fewer than 40 per cent of adults working full-time: Auburn North, Auburn Central, Lakemba and Campsie South.
The highest rates of part-time employment in Australia were centred around the NSW north coast, led by Mullumbimby (50.4 per cent), Byron Bay (48.7 per cent) and Brunswick Heads/Ocean Shores (46.9 per cent).
The 19 areas with the highest unemployment rates in NSW were in western Sydney. Lakemba, which recorded an unemployment rate of 13.9 per cent, was hit hardest based on the census filled out in August last year during the depths of COVID lockdowns. But since lockdowns eased, unemployment in Lakemba has dropped to 10.9 per cent in March this year, the latest National Skills Commission data shows. These more recent figures are not directly comparable to the census data but can be used as an indicator of general trends.
The lowest unemployment rate in Sydney on census night was in Horsley Park/Kemps Creek (1.9 per cent), followed by the new residential growth areas of Cobbitty/Bringelly and Pitt Town/McGraths Hill, which recorded unemployment levels of 2.3 per cent.
TOP INDUSTRIES OF EMPLOYMENT
Health care and social assistance was the largest industry of employment in NSW, and 15 per cent of workers have a job in this field. In the majority of Sydney suburbs, more residents have a job in the healthcare sector than any other sector.
In Gosford/Springfield and Liverpool East, just over 20 per cent of the working population are employed in the healthcare sector, the highest percentage of any Sydney suburbs.
But there are some pockets where other industries are dominant. In much of the inner city, the most common industry of employment is ‘Professional, Scientific and Technical Services’, which is an industry grouping that takes in people like lawyers, computer programmers, accountants and engineers. In Parramatta North, just over a quarter of the working population belongs to this category.
There are four Sydney suburbs where manufacturing is the most common industry of employment: Cabramatta/Lansvale, Canley Vale/Canley Heights, Cabramatta West/Mount Pritchard and Bonnyrigg Heights/Bonnyrigg.
POPULATION MOVEMENTS
The most stable population areas in Sydney, where more than three in four people remained in the same location for at least five years, were in the south and west of the city, led by Horsley Park/Kemps Creek (78.8 per cent), Cecil Hills (77.1 per cent) and Loftus/Yarrawarrah (77 per cent).
The most significant population changes over the past five years largely occurred in areas with increased residential development, including Marsden Park/Shanes Park (92.7 per cent of residents lived in a different place from five years ago), Box Hill/Nelson (91.2 per cent), and Wentworth Point/Sydney Olympic Park (85.1 per cent).
TRAVEL TO WORK
In August last year, more than 60 per cent of workers in 47 suburbs across Sydney reported working from home on census night, but just two of those were in western Sydney: Canterbury North and Parramatta North.
The inner west and north shore recorded the highest rates of working from home at about 68 per cent, led by Balmain, Erskineville/Alexandria, Crows Nest/Waverton and North Sydney/Lavender Bay.
In Sydney, Auburn North had the lowest working from home rate at 14.2 per cent, while the lowest rates in NSW were about 5 per cent in the regional areas of Griffith and Broken Hill.
In NSW more than two-thirds of people drive to work, and in regional areas such as Griffith and Tamworth this rises above 90 per cent. In Sydney, the most motor vehicle-dependent workers live in the far west of the city in Bidwill, Hebersham and Emerton (74.2 per cent).
Bicycle riding is most popular in Byron Bay (4.7 per cent of working residents), followed by Ultimo (3.6 per cent) and the Newcastle suburbs of Wickham, Carrington and Tighes Hill (3.3 per cent).
Walking to work as the sole mode of transport was most popular in Haymarket (20.8 per cent), Millers Point (17.2 per cent), Ultimo and Darlinghurst (about 15 per cent).
Commuting by public transport was highest in suburbs well served by major train lines, led by Auburn North, where 24.6 per cent of residents used public transport, followed by Strathfield East (22.9 per cent), Hurstville Central (20.5 per cent) and Sydney – Haymarket (20.2 per cent).
Take a look back at the data from the initial version of the ‘Census in your area’ interactive earlier this year.
Most Viewed in National
Source: Read Full Article