Fastest growing Ballina suburbs (2016-2021)

Cumbalum grew fastest in percentage terms, at +45%. Lennox Head added the most residents, 1,280. Both figures are the change between the 2016-2021 Censuses, the most recent per-suburb measurement available.

The 2016-2021 Censuses. The 2021 Census is the most recent per-suburb population count published in Australia, so this measures the five years to 2021 rather than the present day. Growth corridors tend to persist, but a suburb that has since filled up will still appear here, and one that took off after 2021 will not.

Because percent growth and headcount growth rarely agree, and both are real. A suburb going from 100 residents to 5,000 grew 4,900%; one going from 35,000 to 56,000 grew 63% but added four times as many people. The percent list finds greenfield estates built on former farmland; the headcount list finds the established corridors absorbing most of the actual growth. Presenting only one would hide half the answer.

This ranking does not say so, and deliberately blends nothing else in. Rapid growth can mean new housing, new schools and rising demand, or it can mean construction, strained roads and services that have not caught up — often both at once in the same suburb. Check the walkability, transport, schools and risk figures on each suburb's own page.

Suburbs in Ballina with at least 500 residents and a population figure in both Censuses. A suburb missing either count is left out rather than ranked as no-growth, and the top 15 are shown in each list.