Census reveals high and mighty apartment living

	MEDIA RELEASE
27 September 2017	Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	121/2017

The proportion of occupied apartments that are high-rise doubled from 19 per cent in 1991 to 38 per cent in 2016, according to an analysis of Census data released today.

The analysis also revealed that there is now one apartment occupied for every five houses, up from one in seven in 1991.

And apartment living was notable at both ends of the age spectrum – 9 per cent of children to the age of four living in apartments, as did 11 per cent of 15-24-year-olds and 12 per cent of people aged 85 and over.

On 2016 Census night, there were 1,214,360 occupied apartments in Australia, of which 463,553 were high-rise (four storeys or more).

The release of Apartment Living – a new Census story comes less than a month to go before the next release of 2016 Census data on Monday, 23 October.

This release will include Census data for Labour force status, Status in employment, Occupation, Workplace address (Journey to work), Industry of employment, Method of travel to work, and Internal migration (place of usual residence 1 and 5 years ago).

A wide range of Census data comprising this and other key personal and dwelling characteristics can be found online, and accessed using one of our easy web-based tools such as QuickStats and Community Profiles.

Key facts from Apartment Living – a new Census story

• The proportion of apartments in four or more storey blocks has doubled in the last 25 years, from 19 per cent (almost one in five) in 1991 to 38 per cent in 2016.
• Nearly half of Australia’s occupied apartments are in New South Wales (47 per cent).
• One in five (21 per cent) of all occupied private dwellings in NSW are apartments.
• 59 per cent of apartments were being rented compared with 31 per cent of all private dwellings.
• Only 13 per cent of all apartments were owned outright, while a further 15 per cent were owned with a mortgage.