Someone is born, someone dies, someone moves here and someone leaves—with net growth of one new Australian every 80 seconds or so.  But not all people are the same and not all growth is evenly distributed. Roy Morgan Research has integrated new suburb-by-suburb (SA2) population estimates from the ABS into Helix Personas, identifying exactly how many of whichtypes of people our major cities are gaining.

Over the last three years, Sydney gained around 230,000 people (a total growth of 5%). 82,544 of these new Sydneysiders are high-income, educated and successful home-owners in the Leading Lifestyles community (up 5%, in line with Sydney’s norm).

Already well-loaded with such types, many of Sydney’s fastest-growing suburbs—such as Lidcombe, Ryde, Killara and Kellyville, and those across the northern beaches—are those housing Leading Lifestyle residents.

Overall, Sydney’s growth was fairly even across Helix communities, with each growing by within 1% or so of the city-wide norm.

However Melbourne’s biggest proportional growth was among two distinct types of people: high-spending hipsters and outer suburban young parents. Growth hotspots like the CBD, Richmond, St Kilda, Brunswick and Footscray added 62,876 hip and high-spending young Metrotechs to the city, (an 8% increase) while suburbs including Craigieburn, South Morang, Caroline Springs and Cranbourne are now home to an additional 69,180 young couples starting out in Today’s Families (the fast-growing community in Melbourne, up 11%). Melbourne also now has 62,678 more residents Getting By, courtesy of high growth in suburbs like Narre Warren and Tarneit.

Perth is the fastest-growing city overall, with 10% more residents than in 2011. As in Melbourne, Today’s Families are Perth’s fastest-growing group with 56,268 new members (up 15%) in high-growth suburbs including Ellenbrook, Success and Canning Vale East. Perth also gained more Aussie Achievers and Golden Years than any other city, in areas including Forrestfield, High Wycombe and Wanneroo, and Gosnells, Armadale and the seaside retirement haven Mandurah, respectively.

Growing more slowly were Brisbane (up 6% overall) and Adelaide (up 3%). In each city, areas and their residents Getting By had the highest proportional growth, of 9% (21,299 people) and 4% (10,245) respectively.

Across these five cities the total number of Battlers has grown by 55,244, surpassing a million.  

Growth since 2011 in the number of residents by Helix Community:

Helix Personas, ABS Population Estimates June 2011 – June 2014. For more information, see maps of growth suburbs across our capital cities, based on ABS SA2 estimates.