Today the ABS released their first round of data from the 2011 Census that was conducted in August last year. This includes a wide range of demographic information for all of Australia available at a small area level. SGS has used the previous Census data in a range of innovative ways to understand a variety of urban and regional issues such as:
• Transport and centres based policy in our major cities;
• The spatial distribution of employment and population;
• Sectoral changes in our employment and labour force; and
• Migration flows across cities, regions and states.
Since the last Census was released in 2006 there have been some major shifts in our economy and population, such as;
• the global financial crisis;
• increased concentration of our city cores with a more dispersed fringe;
• a shift towards a service based economy; and
• the continued effects of the mining boom.
The multidisciplinary team here at SGS are looking forward to using a range of geo-spatial and economic modelling to help further understand these and many more issues.
A first look at the data has revealed that:
• Our five major capital cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth) contributed 68% of the population growth. Regional Australia accounted for 29% of growth.
• While Brisbane and Perth were the two fastest growing cities (annual growth 2.1%) Melbourne saw the largest increase in population (601,000).
• If the trends of the past ten years were to continue, Melbourne would overtake Sydney as the most populated city in Australia by 2028.
Please feel free to contact SGS if you would like discuss what analysis we can do with the new 2011 Census data in your area.
source: ABS Census