NEW SOUTH WALES


TOTAL POPULATION

AGE AND SEX DISTRIBUTION

MEDIAN AGE

CHILDREN (UNDER 15 YEARS OF AGE)

WORKING AGE POPULATION (AGED 15-64 YEARS)

PEOPLE AGED 65 YEARS AND OVER

SEX RATIO


TOTAL POPULATION

At 30 June 2008 the estimated resident population of New South Wales (NSW) was 6.98 million, an increase since 30 June 2003 of 311,600 people (4.7%, or 0.9% per year on average). At June 2008 63.0% of the NSW population resided in the Sydney Statistical Division (SD). Within the remainder of NSW the SDs with the highest share of the state's population were the Hunter (9.1%) and Illawarra (6.1%) SDs on the coast to the north and south of Sydney respectively.

References to Local Government Areas (LGAs) in this commentary exclude those with populations of less than 2,000 at June 2008.

AGE AND SEX DISTRIBUTION

The age structure of the Sydney SD is markedly different from that of the remainder of NSW, most notably in the age groups 20-24 through to 40-44 years. At June 2008, people aged 20-44 years accounted for 38.4% of the total Sydney population compared with 30.1% of residents in the remainder of NSW. This may reflect people aged 20-44 years migrating to Sydney for education, employment and lifestyle reasons.

Conversely, 36.1% of the Sydney SD population were aged 45 years and over, compared with 43.4% of the population in the remainder of NSW.

MEDIAN AGE

The median age of the NSW population at June 2008 was 37.1 years, an increase of 0.8 years since June 2003. The median age for females (37.9 years) was 1.6 years higher than for males (36.3 years), reflecting their longer life expectancy.

At June 2008 the median age of residents of the Sydney SD was 35.7 years, the lowest of all NSW SDs. Within the Sydney SD the LGAs with the youngest median ages were Auburn (A) (31.2 years), Blacktown (C) (32.1 years), Campbelltown (C) (32.2 years) and Liverpool (C) (32.4 years), all in western or south-western Sydney. The oldest median ages in the Sydney SD were in the northern LGAs of Ku-ring-gai (A) (41.4 years), Pittwater (A) (41.2 years) and Hunters Hill (A) (41.0 years). Of the 43 LGAs in the Sydney SD almost two-thirds had median ages below that of the state as a whole.

Of the SDs in the remainder of NSW, the south-western SD of Murrumbidgee (36.6 years) had the lowest median age and the Mid-North Coast SD (44.2 years) had the highest. The LGAs in the remainder of NSW with the lowest median ages included the regional centres of Wagga Wagga (C) (33.0 years), Bourke (A) (33.5 years) and Armidale Dumaresq (A) (33.7 years). The LGAs in the remainder of NSW with the highest median ages were Great Lakes (A) (50.4 years), Eurobodalla (A) (48.4 years) and Nambucca (A) (47.7 years), all located along the NSW coast. Away from the coastal LGAs, the next highest median ages in the remainder of NSW were recorded in Gloucester (A) (47.4 years) in the Hunter Region and Berrigan (A) (46.5 years) on the Murray River. Of the 110 NSW LGAs outside of Sydney 92 had median ages above that of NSW.

CHILDREN (UNDER 15 YEARS OF AGE)

There were 1.33 million NSW residents under 15 years of age in June 2008. Though there had been little change numerically since June 2003, their proportion of the NSW population had declined from 20.0% to 19.1%. At June 2008 the SD with the highest proportion of children was North Western (21.8%).

Within the Sydney SD those aged 0-14 years represented 18.9% (829,400 people) of the population. The Sydney LGAs with the highest proportions of children within their populations were all located in the west and outer south-west of Sydney. Camden (A) (24.3%) had the highest proportion of children followed by Liverpool (C) (23.6%), Blacktown (C) (23.5%) and Wollondilly (A) (23.0%).

At June 2008 children represented 19.4% (502,400 people) of the population in the remainder of NSW. The areas in which this proportion was highest were the inland LGAs of Bourke (A) (25.0%), Hay (A) (23.9%), Moree Plains (A) (23.6%) and Singleton (A) (23.5%).

WORKING AGE POPULATION (AGED 15-64 YEARS)

At June 2008, over two-thirds of the NSW population (67.1% or 4.69 million people) were of working age (15-64 years), a slight increase since June 2003 (66.8% or 4.45 million people). Only the Sydney SD (69.0%) had a higher proportion of its population of working age than the state as a whole.

Three out of every four LGAs in the Sydney SD had a higher proportion of people aged 15-64 years than the state as a whole. The inner-city LGAs of Sydney (C) (84.8%), North Sydney (A) (78.1%) and Leichhardt (A) (76.4%) had the highest proportions of working-aged people in the Sydney SD.

In the remainder of NSW, only eleven of the 110 LGAs had higher proportions of working-aged people than the state as a whole, including Queanbeyan (C) (70.0%) near the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Byron (A) (69.9%) on the far north coast, and Snowy River (A) (69.4%) in south-eastern NSW.

PEOPLE AGED 65 YEARS AND OVER

Between June 2003 and June 2008, the NSW population aged 65 years and over increased from 882,500 (13.2%) to 962,800 people (13.8%). At June 2008, the SD with the highest proportion of its residents of this age was the Mid-North Coast (19.7%).

Within the Sydney SD, just over a third of the 43 LGAs had higher proportions of people aged 65 years and over than the state as a whole. The LGAs with the highest proportions included Hunters Hill (A) (18.3%) in northern Sydney, and Wyong (A) and Gosford (C) (both 18.0%) on the Central Coast.

In the remainder of NSW, over half (58.3%) of the residents aged 65 years and over lived in the 21 coastal LGAs (those with a boundary adjoining the sea). At June 2008 the highest proportions of people aged 65 years and over were in the coastal LGAs of Great Lakes (A) (28.2%), Eurobodalla (A) (23.5%), Port Macquarie-Hastings (A) (22.9%) and Nambucca (A) (22.7%).

SEX RATIO

There were 98.2 males for every 100 females in NSW at June 2008. Males outnumbered females in all five-year age groups up to 25-29 years, with the highest sex ratio recorded for those aged 15-19 years (106.2 males per 100 females). For age groups between 30-34 years and 60-64 years the sex ratio ranged between 97.8 and 99.7. From 65-69 years onwards the sex ratio declined rapidly, due to the longer life expectancy of females. Among people aged 85 years and over there were 50.0 males for every 100 females.

There were more females than males in most LGAs (38 of the 43) in the Sydney SD. The highest sex ratios in the Sydney SD occurred in inner city Sydney (C) (114.1) and Auburn (A) (108.3) in central western Sydney. The lowest sex ratios were in Mosman (A) (85.1) in northern Sydney and Woollahra (A) (89.1) in the eastern suburbs.

At June 2008, 65 of the 110 LGAs in the remainder of NSW recorded sex ratios greater than 100 and only two of these were located along the coast. The highest sex ratios occurred in Walgett (A) (130.7) in north-western NSW and Junee (A) (130.0) in the Murrumbidgee region. The lowest sex ratios were in Wingecarribee (A) (93.5) in the Illawarra region and Armidale Dumaresq (A) (93.7) in northern NSW.