How do people in your area get to work? What do they do for a living? Do they mostly work full-time or part-time? And how long have they lived in the area for?
Our interactive can answer all these questions for you using new data from the 2021 census,which we have broken down by suburb.
This online tool builds on the one we published in July when the first batch of 2021 census data was released,and also displays information on things like income,religion,average age and home ownership. Simply type the name of your suburb into the search box below to see what the data shows:
EMPLOYMENT
When the census was carried out in August last year,56.2 per cent of the Victorian workforce were employed on a full-time basis,32.3 per cent were working part-time,6.5 per cent were away from work and the remaining 5 per cent were unemployed and looking for work.
But the employment picture was vastly different depending on where you were in the state. InRichmond,South Yarra,Port Melbourne,Prahran andCollingwood,more than two-thirds of the working population were employed on a full-time basis. These areas skew younger and are home to many young professionals in their late 20s and early 30s.
Coastal areas such asOtway,Lorne andPoint Lonsdale,which were in the middle of their off-seasons for tourism in August,had among the highest proportion of their workforce employed part-time or away from work on census night.
The highest rates of unemployment statewide were in Melbourne’s north,in suburbs such asCampbellfield,Meadow Heights andBroadmeadows,where more than 10 per cent of the working population was unemployed and looking for work on census night,twice the rate of the rest of the state.
It is also possible to tease out the unemployment rate by age group in each area,which shows how unemployment was highest in the 15-24 age group,at 11.2 per cent statewide. In Campbellfield,more than one in five people in this age bracket were unemployed as of census night.
However,keep in mind that this data is a snapshot of employment in August last year,in the middle of COVID-19 lockdowns,and may not reflect how things are on the ground in an area currently.
TOP INDUSTRIES OF EMPLOYMENT
Healthcare and social assistance was the largest industry of employment in Victoria,and 14 per cent of workers have a job in this field. In the majority of Victorian suburbs,more residents have a job in healthcare than any other sector.
But there are some pockets where other industries are dominant. In much of the inner city,the most common industry of employment is “professional,scientific and technical services”,which is an industry grouping that takes in people such as lawyers,computer programmers,accountants and engineers.
There were no suburbs in the Melbourne region where “agriculture,forestry and fishing” was the largest industry of employment,but there were 42 areas in regional Victoria where this was the biggest source of jobs,particularly in areas on the outskirts of regional population centres such asWangaratta,Swan Hill,Mildura andShepparton.
The construction industry is the biggest employer in many outer suburbs,in areas such asLangwarrin,Sunbury andLilydale. And inParkville andClayton North,suburbs dominated by universities,education is the largest industry of employment. It was also the largest employer inMount Dandenong by a slim margin,so perhaps this is a popular place to live among teachers.
TRAVEL TO WORK
When the 2016 census was carried out,5.2 per cent of Victorians worked from home on census night. But in 2021,with COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in place throughout the state,this had risen to 29.1 per cent. It will be interesting to see what the data will show when the next census is carried out in 2026.
There were 34 suburbs clustered in inner Melbourne where more than half of the working population toiled away from home on census night,includingRichmond,Camberwell andCarlton.Fitzroy North had the highest percentage of its residents working from home at 55.2 per cent.
The car was the dominant mode of transport in the overwhelming majority of suburbs. In the Melbourne region,Doveton was the suburb with the highest percentage of its residents driving to work,at 82 per cent. But trips to work by car were even more prevalent in regional population centres such asShepparton,Wodonga,Warrnambool,Swan Hill,Morwell,Echuca,Ararat andHorsham,where driving made up five out of every six journeys to work.
Walking without using any other mode of transport made up 2.6 per cent of work trips,but amongMelbourne CBD residents about 20 per cent of workers were able to stroll to work.
Cycling as the sole form of transportation made up 0.8 per cent of trips to work,but residents ofBrunswick were the most enthusiastic cyclists,with 7.3 per cent opting for two-wheeled transport.
POPULATION MOVEMENTS
Each time you fill out the census you are asked to specify whether you have moved house in the past year or in the past five years. Once this information has been aggregated for each suburb,it can give a good indication of whether an area’s residents have stayed put for a few years or have recently arrived there.
InTaylors Lakes,81.7 per cent of residents have lived there for more than five years,the highest percentage anywhere in the state. This is an area where a lot of Baby Boomers bought homes in the 1980s and 1990s,and have remained there since.
InTruganina andTarneit,about 5 per cent of residents have lived there for five years,which makes sense considering these areas are full of new builds that are fewer than five years old.