Advantage outside the capitals: Canberra's border villages, Newcastle and the coast
Nine in ten of Australia's most advantaged suburbs and towns are in a capital city, and the capitals added to that lead between the 2016 and 2021 Censuses. Outside them, the most advantaged places are the NSW villages around Canberra, the northern Illawarra, Newcastle's beaches and the Geelong coast. Inner Newcastle rose fastest; Gladstone fell.
After each Census the ABS ranks every suburb and town in Australia by how advantaged its residents are, from their incomes, qualifications, jobs and housing. We looked at the 3,928 places with at least 1,000 residents and asked how many of the most advantaged are outside the eight capital cities.
Very few. Of the 848 places in the most advantaged tenth of the country in 2021, 765 (90%) were in a capital city, although the capitals hold 69% of the people in these places. The other end is the reverse: of the 465 places in the least advantaged tenth, 304 (65%) were outside the capitals.
State by state
Each state's own most advantaged tenth, and how many of those places are outside its capital:
| State | Most advantaged tenth | Outside the capital |
|---|---|---|
| South Australia | 84 | 0 |
| Western Australia | 79 | 4 |
| Tasmania | 28 | 5 |
| Victoria | 167 | 17 |
| New South Wales | 296 | 31 |
| Queensland | 165 | 37 |
| Northern Territory | 16 | 2 |
In South Australia, every one of the 84 is in Adelaide. In Western Australia, three of the four outside Perth are in the Pilbara: Baynton in Karratha, Dampier and Port Hedland. Queensland has the most outside its capital.
The top of the list is around Canberra
The most advantaged places outside any capital are the villages over the NSW border from Canberra. Googong, Royalla, Wamboin, Gundaroo and Murrumbateman are all in the top 1% of the country, and Bungendore, Bywong and Carwoola in the top 3%. They count as NSW, but all are within a short drive of Canberra.
Beyond them, the most advantaged places are on the coast near Sydney and Melbourne:
- The northern Illawarra, where Stanwell Park is in the top 1% and Austinmer and Thirroul in the top 4%.
- Newcastle's Merewether, in the top 4%.
- The Geelong coast: Barwon Heads and Jan Juc, both in the top 4%.
- Mount Macedon, the most advantaged place in Victoria outside Melbourne, and Burradoo in the Southern Highlands.
Far from any of them, Desert Springs in Alice Springs is in the top 2% of the country.
The capitals pulled further ahead
Comparing the 3,742 places with at least 1,000 residents in both Censuses, the number in the most advantaged tenth of the country went from 704 to 736 in the capitals, from 55 to 51 in regional cities, and from 23 to 17 in country towns.
Inner Newcastle went against that trend. Of the 20 places outside the capitals that rose furthest, seven are in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie. Teralba, on Lake Macquarie, rose from the 12th percentile to the 54th. Wickham, beside the harbour, rose from the 77th to the 92nd and entered the top tenth. Tighes Hill, Islington, Mayfield East and Broadmeadow each rose by more than 20 percentiles.
Other places that rose:
- The southern Gold Coast: Coolangatta from the 34th percentile to the 54th, and Palm Beach from the 52nd to the 76th.
- Around Byron Bay: Brunswick Heads from the 23rd to the 45th, while Bangalow and Lennox Head entered the top tenth.
- Walgett, in the north-west of NSW, from the 6th to the 25th.
The largest falls were in and around Gladstone, in Queensland. Clinton fell from the 36th percentile to the 15th, Boyne Island from the 49th to the 28th, and Glen Eden and Kirkwood by more than 20 each. Paraburdoo, a Pilbara mining town, fell from the 65th to the 37th.
How we counted
- From the ABS Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), the Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage, 2016 and 2021, by suburb and locality (CC BY 4.0). It is built from Census answers on income, education, occupation and housing.
- A percentile places a suburb among all of Australia's suburbs and localities in that Census year: the 99th percentile is more advantaged than 99% of them. The ABS warns that scores cannot be compared between Censuses, so we compare percentiles only.
- We kept places with at least 1,000 residents, and for the change, only places with the same name in both years. Some suburb boundaries changed between 2016 and 2021.
- "Capital" means the eight capital cities' urban areas as the ABS draws them (its Significant Urban Areas). A few places on a capital's edge, such as Camden Park near Sydney and Panton Hill near Melbourne, fall outside them and count as regional.
- The index describes the people who live in a place, not the place, and an average. Most suburbs have both advantaged and disadvantaged households.
Suburb pages show where each suburb sits on this index, from very disadvantaged to very advantaged.