MEDIA RELEASE
June 30, 2009	Embargoed: 11.30 am (AEST)	44/2009 (State)

South-east Queensland and south-west Western Australia are Australia's most popular places to move to according to Australian Social Trends, the quarterly snapshot of society from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Relocation across the nation

Brisbane was the only capital city to experience substantial growth from internal migration in the five years to 2006, with a net increase of 40,000 people from elsewhere in Australia.

Other regions of South-East Queensland also had significant growth from internal migration including Gold Coast-Tweed which netted 35,000 people, the Sunshine Coast (17,000) and Hervey Bay (7,300).

Further north in Queensland, Cairns, Townsville and Mackay also featured among the top ten fastest growing regions with relatively strong internal migration. Mandurah and Bunbury in WA (both south of Perth) also grew very quickly from internal migration in the five years to 2006.

While most growth from internal migration was coastal, there were a few notable exceptions, with Toowoomba (inland south east Queensland), Bendigo and Ballarat all attracting more residents than they lost.

Home and away: the living arrangements of young people

More than one-quarter (27%) of people aged 20–34 years in Melbourne or Sydney were living with their parents. This compares with 20% each in Brisbane, Hobart and Canberra and 22% in Perth.

Outside the capitals the proportion living with their parents averaged 18%. It was lowest in the Northern Territory and Western Australia (12% and 13% respectively) and highest in New South Wales and Victoria (20% each).

Health literacy

The ACT had a higher proportion of people with adequate or better health literacy (56%) than the other states and the Northern Territory (around 40%). This is related to the fact that more of the ACT population have qualifications such as a degree or diploma, compared with the states and the Northern Territory.

Australian Social Trends - state/territory information

	NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT	Aust.
Relocation across the nation
Net internal migration, capital cities ('000)	-123.4	-19.8	39.7	-10.2	3.0	2.3	-3.0	2.0	-109.3
Home and away
People 20-34 years living with parents, capital cities (%)	27	27	20	24	22	20	13	20	25
People 20-34 years living with parents, balance of states (%)	20	20	16	17	13	18	12	. .	18
People 20-34 years living with parents, Total (%)	25	26	18	23	20	19	13	20	23
Health literacy
People with adequate or better health literacy (%)	41	39	39	41	43	37	37	56	41

. . not applicable
n.a. not available
* has a relative standard error of greater than 25%