WESTERN AUSTRALIA


TOTAL POPULATION

The estimated resident population of Western Australia at 30 June 2007 was 2.11 million, an increase of 47,000 people or 2.3% since 30 June 2006. The majority of this increase was derived from net overseas migration, followed by natural increase and net interstate migration. In June 2007 Western Australia's population was 10.0% of the Australian total.

Almost three quarters (73.8%) of the state's population resided in the Perth Statistical Division (SD) and a further 10.8% resided in the South West SD. The remaining 15% was shared among the seven other non-metropolitan SDs, each of which had between 1% and 3% of the state's total.

At the Local Government Area (LGA) level, nearly half of Western Australia's 142 LGAs had fewer than 2,000 residents at June 2007. While precision of estimation is difficult with such small populations, around a dozen of these had fewer than 500 residents. At the other end of the scale, four LGAs each had over 100,000 residents at June 2007. The following commentary omits specific reference to Local Government Areas with populations of less than 2,000.


AGE AND SEX DISTRIBUTION

In June 2007, 19.8% of the state's population was aged under 15 years and 11.9% was aged 65 years and over. Persons of 'working age' (15 - 64 years) accounted for 68.3% of the population.

There were slightly more males (1,064,000) than females (1,042,000) in the state.

The graph below shows the proportions of males and females in each of the five year age groups for the Perth SD and for the remainder of the state.

MEDIAN AGE

The median age, the age at which half the population is younger and half is older, increased slightly in Western Australia to 36.4 years at June 2007. The median age for males was 35.8 years and for females was 37.0 years.

At the SD level, Midlands had the highest median age (41.0 years) in 2007. The Lower and Upper Great Southern SDs, as well as the South West and Central SDs also had median ages above the state figure. Kimberley and Pilbara SDs had the lowest median ages of 30.2 years and 31.3 years respectively. The median age of the Perth SD was 36.2 years.

The LGAs with the highest median ages in 2007 were Denmark (S) and York (S) (both 45.1 years). In contrast, Halls Creek (S) and Derby-West Kimberley (S) had the lowest median ages of 26.0 and 28.4 years respectively.


CHILDREN (UNDER 15 YEARS OF AGE)

At June 2007, there were 416,000 children aged 0-14 years in Western Australia. Boys outnumbered girls by 13,500 and together they comprised almost 20% of the state's population.

LGAs with higher proportions of their populations aged 0-14 years were outside the Perth SD, mainly in the north of the state. The LGAs of Halls Creek (S) (30.2%) and Derby-West Kimberley (S) (28.2%) had the highest proportions of children under 15 years of age.

Seven LGAs had less than 15% of their population aged 0-14 years. These were all in the Perth SD with Perth (C) at the extreme with just 4.8% of its resident population under 15 years of age.

WORKING AGE POPULATION (AGED 15-64 YEARS)

At June 2007 an estimated 1,439,000 people, representing 68.3% of the total population were aged between 15 and 64 years.

At the LGA level, Perth (C) had 85.9% of its population aged 15-64 years, Subiaco (C) had 75.7% and Vincent (T) had 75.6%. These proportions are due to large numbers of city workers and tertiary students choosing inner-city accommodation. Outside of Perth SD, and reflecting the current employment opportunities in the resources industry, the four shires of the Pilbara as well as Ravensthorpe (S) and Kalgoorlie/Boulder (C) each had more than 70% of their populations in the 15-64 year age bracket.


PEOPLE AGED 65 YEARS AND OVER

At June 2007, there were 251,000 older people (aged 65 years and over) in Western Australia. This age group accounted for 11.9% of the state population.

In this age group, the number of females exceeded the number of males, with 85.6 males for every 100 females.

Mandurah (C), a popular retirement destination in the South West SD, was the LGA with the highest proportion of its residents aged 65 years and over (20.8%). In contrast, Ashburton (S) had 1.8% of its population aged 65 years and over and Roebourne (S) had 2.1%.


SEX RATIO

Across Western Australia the sex ratio (the number of males for every 100 females) was 102.1. This figure however varied markedly within the state, reaching 127.7 in the Pilbara SD, 114.5 in the South Eastern SD and 110.2 in the Kimberley SD. In the Perth SD the sexes were quite evenly distributed resulting in a sex ratio of 100.1.

At the LGA level (excluding LGAs with fewer than 2,000 people) Ravensthorpe (S) had the highest sex ratio (164.6), followed by other shires with high resource activity, East Pilbara (146.1) and Ashburton (135.4). In contrast, Mosman Park (T) had the lowest sex ratio (87.3).

Across all age groups, the non-metropolitan region had higher sex ratios than Perth SD.