SOUTH 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

At 30 June 2009, the estimated resident population of South Australia (SA) was 1.62 million.

Almost three-quarters (73.1%) of the state's population resided in the Adelaide Statistical Division (SD) in June 2009, a proportion virtually unchanged since June 1996. The population of each SD in SA grew in the five years to June 2009. Outer Adelaide was the fastest growing SD in these five years, increasing by 2.1% per year on average. This exceeded the average annual growth rate for the state (1.1%). All other SDs in SA had an annual average growth rate below that of the state for this period.

References to Local Government Areas (LGAs) in this summary exclude those with population of less than 2,000 in June 2009.

AGE AND SEX DISTRIBUTION

The Adelaide SD had a lower proportion of its population aged under 18 years and a higher proportion aged 18 to 39 years as compared to the remainder of the state. This is indicative of young adults moving to the capital city for work or study purposes.

The difference between the age distributions for the Adelaide SD and the remainder of SA was evident for both sexes. The difference was most evident for people aged 20 to 24 years. For this age group, females comprised 3.8% of the Adelaide SD population compared with 2.4% in the rest of the state, while males comprised 3.9% of the capital city compared with 2.8% in the remainder of the state.

The population of the Adelaide SD was 2.7 times greater than that of the remainder of the state. The population aged 20 to 24 years in the capital city was four times greater than that of the remainder of the state.

MEDIAN AGE

At June 2009, SA had a median age of 39.1 years (the age at which half the population is older and half is younger). This was the second highest of all states and territories (behind Tasmania).

The LGA of Victor Harbor (C) had the highest median age in Australia at 54.4 years. The next highest in SA were Yorke Peninsula (DC) (50.9 years), Yankalilla (DC) (49.1) and Tumby Bay (DC) (48.5), all of which were among the top ten in Australia. The median age for Anangu Pitjantjatjara (AC) (28.8), was the lowest of all South Australian LGAs, followed by Roxby Downs (M) (30.2), Adelaide (C) (31.1) and Playford (C) (34.1).

In the five years to 2009, the median age of Adelaide (C) decreased by 2.1 years to 31.1 years. This was the largest decrease of all LGAs in SA. In contrast, the largest increase in median age over this period was recorded for Kingston (DC), which increased by 5.1 years to 47.1 years.

CHILDREN (UNDER 15 YEARS OF AGE)

At June 2009, there were 290,800 people under 15 years of age in SA, which was 17.9% of the state's population. The LGAs with the largest proportion of children were Roxby Downs (M) (24.8%), Anangu Pitjantjatjara (AC) (24.7%), Ceduna (DC) (23.3%), Playford (C) and Light (RegC) (both 22.7%). Twenty LGAs in SA had 20.0% or more of their population aged less than 15 years. Of these, only Playford (C) and Salisbury (C) were in the Adelaide SD.

WORKING AGE POPULATION (AGED 15-64 YEARS)

SA had 1.08 million people aged 15 to 64 years in June 2009, representing 66.7% of the state's population. The LGA with the highest proportion of it's population of working age was Adelaide (C) (84.3%), followed by Roxby Downs (M) (74.2%), Prospect (C) (70.4%), Anangu Pitjantjatjaru (AC) (69.7%) and Unley (C) (69.6%). The proportion of people aged 15 to 64 years in Roxby Downs (M) increased 4.1 percentage points in the five years to June 2009, which was the largest increase of all LGAs in SA over this period.

PEOPLE AGED 65 YEARS AND OVER

At June 2009, 15.4% of the South Australian population was aged 65 years or over. The LGAs with the highest proportions of their population aged 65 years or older were located in coastal and rural areas and include Victor Harbor (C) (32.1%), Yorke Peninsula (DC) (25.7%), Tumby Bay (DC) (24.0%), Yankalilla (DC) (23.3%) and Copper Coast (DC) (23.1%). All of these proportions have increased since five years earlier. In the Adelaide SD, Holdfast Bay (C) had the highest proportion of people aged 65 years and over (21.5%), although this proportion had declined from 23.2% in June 2004, which was the largest decline of all LGAs in SA for this period.

SEX RATIO

At June 2009, SA's sex ratio (the number of males per 100 females) was 97.6, with 801,900 males and 821,700 females.

The LGA with the highest ratio of males per 100 females was Roxby Downs (M) (137.6), which was among the highest in Australia, followed by Mid Murray (DC) (115.7), Lower Eyre Peninsula (DC) (115.1) and Streaky Bay (DC) (113.6). Unley (C) (87.8), Burnside (C) (88.9), Holdfast Bay (C) (89.3), Walkerville (M) (90.3) and Norwood Payneham St Peters (C) (90.4) had the lowest sex ratios in SA. These were among the ten LGAs with the lowest sex ratios in Australia.