Ku-ring-gai Council in Sydney’s upper north shore is the most advantaged Local Government Area (LGA) in Australia, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) 2016 Census of Population and Housing, released on Tuesday.
Home to just over 118,000 residents on census night, Ku-ring-gai is officially Australia’s most advantaged LGA based on the ABS’ Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), which ranks areas in Australia according to relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage.
The second most advantaged LGA in Australia is Mosman (population of 28,475 on census night). Mosman includes the affluent suburbs of Balmoral, Beauty Point, and Clifton Gardens.
Third place goes to Woollahra, which had a population of 54,240 on census night.
“SEIFA data shows the 10 most advantaged LGAs in Australia are all located around the Northern and Eastern areas of Sydney Harbour and in coastal Perth,” the ABS said.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Cherbourg (population of 1,269 on census night) is the most disadvantaged LGA in Australia. This was followed by West Daly and Belyuen, both in the Northern Territory.
“The 10 most disadvantaged LGAs in Australia can be found in Queensland and the Northern Territory,” the ABS said.
Broken down by ethnicity, it was found that more than 30% of people born in China, South Africa, and Malaysia live in advantaged areas, and less than 10% live in disadvantaged areas. In contrast, 40% of Vietnamese-born live in disadvantaged areas, with only a small proportion (11%) living in advantaged areas.
“People of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin are more likely to live in the most disadvantaged areas with 48 per cent living in the bottom fifth most disadvantaged LGAs, compared to 18 per cent of non-Indigenous people,” the ABS said.
“Overall, only 5.4 per cent of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people live in areas of high relative advantage compared with 22 per cent of non-Indigenous people.”
