The People of NSW

11/11/2025

Does where you live affect how long you might live? It seems so! Life expectancy is the average number of years that someone born now could be expected to live and the latest Aussie data has just been released. People in the North Sydney-Hornsby SA4* had the highest life expectancy in NSW (and Australia!) at 88.1 years for women 👳‍♀️ and 85.8 years for men. The data for NSW generally was 85.2 years for women and 81.2 years for men 🧓, with people living in Greater Sydney having slightly higher rates than their country cousins.
The lowest life expectancies were in western NSW in the Far West and Orana SA4* with 76.1 years for men 🧓 and 80.7 years for women 👳‍♀️.
↕️ For men, that's a 15 year gap between the top & bottom regional life expectancy, and 13 years for women. Where you live matters...

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics Life Expectancy 2022-24 data using *Statistical Area 4 (SA4) geographies
📷: Pexels

13/09/2025

Who was the 'most likely' type of NSW resident in 2021 (both man and woman)?! They were 31 years old (so they would be 35 now) who had never married:
👨‍🦰 for men, they worked full time in the 'Computer System Design & Related Services' industry
👩‍🦱 for women, they worked full time in the 'Hospital' industry.
And they both did between 5 and 14 hours housework in a week 😊.

⁉️ Do you fit this description?! I'd love to hear from you if so!

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Population Census, with a methodology devised by me using Tablebuilder...I can provide details on request..
Photos: Flickr - computer fellow and NSW Health worker (but I have no way of knowing if these people are 31!)

21/08/2025

Who lived in our 3,365,000 houses in NSW in 2021? 💭 When you think of a 'household', what type of people come to mind? Houses contain a great diversity of families & groups at a range of stages & ages!

👤In Greater Sydney*:
- 33% were a couple family with children 👨‍👨‍👧‍👦
- 23% were a couple family with no children 👫
- 22% were a lone person household (see my previous post) 🧍‍♀️
- 10% were a one parent family 👩‍👦
- 4% were group households 👤👤👤

👤 In regional NSW*:
- 27% were a couple family with no children 👫
- 26% were a lone person household 🧍 (see my previous post)
- 24% were a couple family with children 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦
- 10% were a one parent family 👩‍👦
- 3% were group households 👤👤👤

There were also 👫👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 65,000 'two family households' , 👫👨‍👩‍👧‍👦👩‍👦 3,000 'three family households' in NSW.

As usual, it’s nuanced at the local government area level:
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 for 'couple families with children', city areas dominated - The Hills Shire had the highest proportion at 49%, Camden 46%, Ku-ring-gai 44%, Blacktown 43% and Hornsby and Liverpool 42%
👫 for 'couple families with no children', regional areas dominated - Walcha, Kiama, Murray River & Eurobodalla had the highest proportion at 34%
👩‍👦 for one parent families, Fairfield had the highest proportion at 16%, and Cessnock, Campbelltown & Brewarrina at 14%.
👤👤👤 for group households, The City of Sydney 11%, Burwood 10% and Waverley 9%, Strathfield & Byron (8%) had the highest proportions.
👫👨‍👩‍👧‍👦👩‍👦 multiple family households were most likely in Fairfield (6%) and Liverpool, The Hills, Wollondilly, Blacktown % Cumberland (4%).

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census using Tablebuilder
Photo: Pexels
* Greater Sydney = Greater Capital City Statistical Area (including the Central Coast in the north, Sutherland Shire in the south, and Hawkesbury/Blue Mountains/Wollondilly on the western fringes)
Regional NSW = ‘Rest of NSW’ GCCSA (ie outside the Greater Sydney GCCSA)
Numbers are rounded to nearest 5,000.
Data relates to occupied private dwellings

31/07/2025

After a few years of posting nerdy (and some serious!) stories about our NSW population from Census data, I've decided to also run a concurrent Instagram page of the same name - jump over and follow me there too!

0 Followers, 2 Following, 3 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from People of NSW ()

30/07/2025

How many houses had just one person living in them in NSW in 2021? In Greater Sydney* it was 425,000 or 23%; in regional NSW* it was 28%, or 300,000. This proportion comes as a surprise to many – think about your suburb or town – is this ‘visible’ to you?
💭 Who are these 724,000 people? See the graphs below!
👤 In Greater Syd, almost half (46%) are ‘never marrieds’, followed by 31% being divorced or separated people, then the 19% being widow/ers, and 4% married people (yep!)
👤 For regional NSW, divorced & separated people are in the majority (36%), followed closely by the never marrieds (35%), widow/ers (26%) and marrieds (3%)
👤 In Greater Syd, you can see there is a regular spread of ages from 20-90, dominated by people in their 60s and 70s, the majority of these divorced or separated.
👤 For regional NSW, people in their 60s and 70s also dominate, but there are relatively fewer younger people

As usual, it’s nuanced at the local level. The LGAs in NSW with the highest proportion of lone person households were Sydney and North Sydney (32%), but not far behind were the rural LGAs of Broken Hill, Glen Innes Severn, Lithgow , AlburyCity and Weddin at 28%. The Hills Shire in north west Sydney was the lowest at 11%.

It's not just families needing housing; it’s a range of people at a range of life stages and ages. For example, when a domestic relationship fails, there is then usually demand for one more home (even if it is also a part time home for some children).

I look at other types of households and families at https://www.facebook.com/peopleofnsw/posts/1194360382712559

Sources: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census using Quickstats (household composition) and Tablebuilder (lone person household analysis)
Photo: Pexels

* Greater Sydney = Greater Capital City Statistical Area (including the Central Coast in the north, Sutherland Shire in the south, and Hawkesbury/Blue Mountains/Wollondilly on the western fringes)
Regional NSW = ‘Rest of NSW’ GCCSA (ie outside the Greater Sydney GCCSA)
Numbers are rounded to nearest 5,000.

29/07/2025

How much has your region grown in the last 20 years and how much is it projected to grow in the next 20? This week I spoke on ABC Newcastle radio with Amelia Bernasconi about the numbers relating to our Hunter Region* - here are some stats:
👥 In the 20 years from 2001 to 2021, the Hunter's population grew by 151,000 people or 29%
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 In 2041, the Hunter is projected to grow by another 26% to approx 855,000
👥 We're currently adding about 11,000 people a year to our population. This yearly addition is equivalent to the town of Muswellbrook.
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 The total expected growth 2001-2041 (40 years) is a 63% increase on the 2001 population. In particular, the Maitland LGA will have 'doubled and a half' and the Cessnock LGA doubled.

Sources: Australian Bureau of Statistics Estimated Resident Population and Census 2021 data; NSW Government Population Projections

* 'The Hunter Region' = the local govt areas of Cessnock, Dungog, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Muswellbrook, Newcastle, Port Stephens, Singleton and Upper Hunter.

Map credit: The Australian Tourism Network

28/07/2025

No religion? The 1976 Census results below tell us that in Australia, there were 1.1 million people, or 8% of the total population who said that they had no religion....by 2021, this had grown to 38% of the population, or 9.8 million people.

Interestingly, in 1976, there were more people who did not answer the Census question relating to religion (12%); by 2021 this had dropped to 7% of the population.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 1976 and 2021 Population Census data

10/07/2025

How many different languages are spoken in your area? In NSW, there were 285 different languages recorded by the 2021 Census - a huge diversity! The top 6 languages were English, Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Hindi - but there were 158 other languages that were each spoken by at least 100 people. A language other than English was used in 30% of households.

In the whole of Australia, there were 500 different languages recorded as being 'spoken at home' in Australia in 2021 - about half of this number were different Australian Indigenous languages. In NSW, almost 5,500 people spoke an Australian Indigenous language at home, with the #1 language being Wiradjuri with 1,200 speakers.

Images:
1. Australia filled with our country's name in many languages
2. Australia filled with Australian Indigenous language names
Both sourced from 'Geography Of Australia Languages at Hayley Pell blog'

Source of data: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Population Census using Tablebuilder.

Languages NSW
The Language Nerds
First Languages Australia
Reconciliation NSW
Ethnic Communities' Council of NSW
Aboriginal Affairs NSW

07/01/2025

Disengaged and engaged young people (aged 19-24); where are they in NSW? For starters, the difference between metro* and rural* in 2021 was stark:
🎓 The proportion of rural young people who were 'primarily engaged in full time study' was half the rate of that of their metro friends (18% compared to 37%).
⚒️ 🗄️ Conversely, rural young people were much more likely to be 'primarily engaged through full time employment' than their metro friends (33% compared to 21%).

Local govt areas that stand out in the stats:
🔎 The highest rates of young people who were 'not engaged' (in either work or study) in the metro area were within Campbelltown and Fairfield LGAs at 20% each. In the rural areas, there were 10 LGAs above this rate, with the highest at 38% being Darling, followed by Coonamble, Brewarrina, Tenterfield, Shire Council , , , Kempsey, & all in the 20-30% range.
🔎 Shire was also the place where the hardest workers were: 6% were engaged in both full time study and full time work.
🔎 The full time studiers? The highest metro proportion of young people 'primarily engaged through full-time study' was in Ku-ring-gai area at 56%, followed by Willoughby, Burwood and Hunter's Hill each over 50% . In the rural part of the state it was unsurprisingly Armidale, & City of Newcastle (32-37%)
🔎 The full time workers? The fringe areas of Wollondilly & Hawkesbury had the highest metro proportion of young people 'primarily engaged through full-time work' (36-38%). The rural areas blitzed this, with 47 LGAs (approx half) recording a rate above this, with the highest being at 53% & at 51%.

The implications of this data are many and varied. Further cross tabulation of many variables can help to shine a light on the factors that lead to these stats. More importantly, the changes over time will hopefully show where our society is able to make positive changes for young people.

* 'Metro' = Greater Sydney Greater Capital City Statistical Area; 'Rural' = Rest of NSW GCCSA

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Population Census using Tablebuilder

📷s: Flickr, AUSVEG and My Next Move

06/01/2025

Can't get a hair appointment? Spare a thought for the 10 local govt areas in NSW where there were no qualified hairdressers working in 2021*✂️! At that time there were almost 14,000 hairdressers employed in NSW (including barbers); 84% were female. Half of them were in their 20s or 30s, and there were 9 men in their 80s still working.
✂️ In contrast, there were approx 44,000 people whose highest non-school qualification was in hairdressing.
*✂️Here's the list of LGAs where there were no hairdressers recorded: Balranald Shire, Bogan Shire, Brewarrina Shire, Carrathool Shire, Central Darling Shire, Coolamon Shire, Coonamble Shire, Lockhart Shire, Murrumbidgee Shire and Unincorporated NSW (and no 'hair or beauty salon 'managers' or 'assistants' working either!)
✂️ On the other end of the scale, the top 5 places where hairdressers worked (City of Sydney, Central Coast Council, City of Newcastle, Lake Macquarie City Council and Sutherland Shire Council) soaked up more than a fifth of all hairdressers in the state!

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Population Census using Tablebuilder

📷 Hair Stylists Australia

30/10/2024

Birthing difficulties: almost a third of local govt areas in NSW had no midwife working in their area in 2021; while 90 of the 132 LGAs in the state also had no obstetrician/gynaecologist working in their area. This is no surprise to rural women and speaks to the inequity of birthing choice, and the dangers of the vast distances that many women have to travel to give birth.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Population Census, using 'place of work' data via Tablebuilder
Photos: NSW Health, Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, Royal Aust & NZ College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists RANZCOG

NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association
Local Government NSW

This is the list of rural LGAs who had no midwives working in their area at the 2021 Census (there were only 3 small metro LGAs who were similar):
Balranald
Bellingen
Berrigan
Bland
Blayney
Bogan
Brewarrina
Cabonne
Carrathool
Central Darling
Coolamon
Dungog
Federation
Gilgandra
Glen Innes Severn
Greater Hume Shire
Gwydir
Hay
Junee
Kiama
Lachlan
Liverpool Plains
Lockhart
Murray River
Murrumbidgee
Narrandera
Narromine
Oberon
Port Stephens
Tenterfield
Upper Lachlan Shire
Uralla
Walcha
Warren
Warrumbungle Shire
Weddin
Wentworth
Yass Valley

21/06/2024

Spare a thought for the 1,890 poultry farmers & poultry farm workers in NSW (at the 2021 Census), as they are at heightened biosecurity alert at present. Just over a third are female. The Tamworth Regional Council area has by far the largest number of workers in these occupations (259), followed by Griffith City Council (179), Wollondilly Shire Council (114) and Murrumbidgee Shire Council (100).
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Population Census, using Tablebuilder
Photo credit: Manning Valley Free Range Eggs (in the MidCoast Council area that has 98 people in this occupation)