WESTERN AUSTRALIA


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

The estimated resident population of Western Australia at 30 June 2008 was 2.17 million. In the five years to June 2008, Western Australia's population increased by 11.2% (an average annual growth rate of 2.1%) or 218,100 (119,500 males and 98,600 females).

Almost three-quarters (73.8%) of the state's population resided in the Perth Statistical Division (SD) and a further 10.9% resided in the South West SD. The remaining 15% was shared among the seven other non-metropolitan SDs, each of which had between 3% and less than 1% of the state's total. In the five years to 2008, only the Perth, South West and Pilbara SDs had increased their proportions of the total WA population.

Nearly half of Western Australia's 139 Local Government Areas had fewer than 2,000 residents at June 2008. Because precision of estimation is difficult with small populations, the following commentary omits specific reference to Local Government Areas with populations fewer than 2,000.

AGE AND SEX DISTRIBUTION

Compared with the 'Remainder of State', the Perth SD had a lower proportion of its population aged under 17 years, a higher proportion aged 17 to 39 years and a slightly lower proportion aged 40 to 79 years at June 2008. This is indicative of young adults moving to the capital city for work and study purposes.

This difference between the age distributions in Perth SD and the remainder of the state was evident for both sexes and was most notable for the 20-24 year age group, where males made up 4.1% of the Perth SD population compared with 3.0% in the remainder of the state, and females comprised 3.8% of the Perth SD population compared with 2.7% in the remainder of the state.

Across all ages there were just under three times as many people living in the Perth SD as in the remainder of the state at June 2008. For people aged 20-24 years there were nearly four times as many in the city as in the remainder of the state.

In the year to June 2008, 55.2% of Western Australia's population increase was male. This was a slightly higher proportion than the five-year average of 54.8%.

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 2008. The median age for males was 35.7 years and for females was 37.0 years.

At the SD level, Midlands had the highest median age (41.3 years) in June 2008 and the highest increase in median age (2.7 years) since June 2003. The Lower and Upper Great Southern SDs, as well as the South West and Central SDs also had median ages above the state figure in 2008. Kimberley and Pilbara SDs had the lowest median ages of 30.4 years and 31.5 years respectively. The median age of the Perth SD was 36.1 years, an increase of 0.5 years since 2003.

The LGAs with the highest median ages in 2008 were Denmark (S) and York (S), (45.7 and 45.2 years respectively). In contrast, Halls Creek (S) and Derby-West Kimberley (S) had the lowest median ages of 26.5 and 28.8 years respectively.

CHILDREN (UNDER 15 YEARS OF AGE)

At June 2008 there were 427,900 children aged 0-14 years in Western Australia. Boys outnumbered girls by 13,700 and together they comprised almost 20% of the state's population. In the five years since 2003, the number of 0-14 year olds grew by 26,800 or 6.7%.

LGAs with higher proportions of their populations aged 0-14 years were in the north of the state. Halls Creek (S) (29.6%), Derby-West Kimberley (S) (27.8%), and Ashburton (S) (27.5%) had the highest proportions of children under 15 years of age. In the South West, Capel (S) also had more than one-quarter (26.6%) of its population aged under 15 years.

LGAs with low proportions of 0-14 year olds were all in the Perth SD with Perth (C), Subiaco (C), Victoria Park (T), Vincent (T), South Perth (C) and Claremont (T) each having less than 14% of their resident population under 15 years of age.

WORKING AGE POPULATION (AGED 15-64 YEARS)

At June 2008 an estimated 1.48 million people, representing 68.4% of the total population were aged between 15 and 64 years. In the five years since 2003, the working age population grew by 154,600 or 11.6%. SDs with proportionally higher growth in this age group in the five years since 2003 included the South West (17.9% increase), the Pilbara (13.9%) and Perth (12.0%).

At the LGA level, 85.9% of the population of Perth (C) was aged 15-64 years, followed by Vincent (T) (75.7%) and Subiaco (C) (75.5%). These proportions are due to large numbers of city workers and tertiary students residing in inner-city accommodation. Outside of Perth SD, and reflecting 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. This pattern was similar in 2003.

PEOPLE AGED 65 YEARS AND OVER

Over a quarter of a million Western Australians (258,400 or 11.9%) were aged 65 years and over in June 2008. Within this group, 30,800 were aged 85 years and over. In the five years since June 2003, the number of people aged 65 years and over increased by 16.6%. During this period, the sub-set of people aged 85 years and over increased by 28.9%.

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%), followed by Claremont (T), a leafy western suburb in the Perth SD, and Murray (S), which is adjacent to Mandurah.

SEX RATIO

Across Western Australia the sex ratio (the number of males for every 100 females) was 102.6 in June 2008. This ratio was 1.9 points higher than it had been in 2003. This is largely due to net migration of males into Western Australia being greater than net migration of females over the five-year period.

The ratio varied markedly within the state, reaching 128.7 in the Pilbara SD, 114.8 in the South Eastern SD and 110.9 in the Kimberley SD. In the Perth SD the sexes were quite evenly distributed resulting in a sex ratio of 100.6.

At the LGA level at June 2008, Ravensthorpe (S) had the highest sex ratio (173.0), followed by other shires with extensive resource activity, East Pilbara (S) (149.7) and Ashburton (S) (136.4). Coolgardie (S), Port Hedland (T), Roebourne (S) and Exmouth (S) also had sex ratios above 120.

In Perth (C) the sex ratio was also high at 131.5.