_Focus On | Living on the Gold Coast

Gold Coast’s Demographic Profile Population 

Gold Coast LGA population has been significantly rising. Over the year to 30 June 2017, an increase in the estimated resident population was recorded at 2.7% to 592,350 persons. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), this is well above the overall Australian population growth of 1.6%. When compared to the Australian capital cities, the Gold Coast LGA population is ranked the 6th largest, ahead of Canberra, Greater Hobart and Greater Darwin.

Projected Population 

According to Queensland Treasury projections, the Gold Coast LGA population is projected to grow annually by 2.2%, to 866,650 persons by 2036. 

Age Distribution 

The Gold Coast LGA residents were primarily young to middle aged at the time of the last Census in 2016. Approximately 33.2% of the population was aged between 15 and 39 years old; compared to the national average of 33.9% for this age group. The median age of the population in the Gold Coast LGA was 38 years, similar to the national average. Children aged 0-14 years comprised 18.1% while people aged 65+ years made up 16.4% of the population.

Multiculturalism 

The Gold Coast LGA population comprised 36.1% of people being born outside of Australia, higher than the national average of 33.3%. The most prominent countries of birth include New Zealand (8.0%), England (5.2%), China (1.3%), South Africa (1.2%) and Japan (0.8%). In addition, approximately 33.4% of Gold Coast’s residents’ parents were born overseas, lower than national (34%). 

Religion 

The Catholic religion was practiced by 20.8% of Gold Coast residents at the time of the Census 2016, this was followed by Anglican at 16.1%, then Uniting Church with 3.9%. No religion was the most common response on the Gold Coast with 31.8% of the population.

Language 

Other than English, Mandarin (1.7%) is the most common language spoken in a Gold Coast household. Other typical languages include Japanese (1.0%), Korean (0.6%), Spanish (0.6%) and Cantonese (0.5%).

Education 

In the Gold Coast LGA, 30.5% of the population were attending an educational institution at the time of the 2016 Census. Of these, 21.1% were in a university, tertiary, technical or further education institution.

Work 

The most common occupation of Gold Coast residents are in Professional Services—at 18.3% compared to the national 22.2% average.   Technicians and trades workers (14.9%), clerical and administrative workers (13.6%) and managers (12.4%) were the next most common occupations. 

Of all the employed people in the Gold Coast LGA, 4% worked in hospitals. Other major industries of employment included cafés and restaurants (3.1%), accommodation (2.6%) and supermarket and grocery stores (2.4%).

Travel to Work 

In the Gold Coast LGA, at the time of the Census 2016, the most common methods of travel to work for employed people were by car, as a driver (68.9%). Other responses were worked at home (5.9%), car, as a passenger (4.8%), walked only (2.6%) and by bus (1.1%). 

On the day, 4.2% of employed people used public transport (train, bus, ferry, tram/light rail) as at least one of their methods of travel to work and 75.2% used car (either as driver or as passenger).  

Key Employment Hubs 

Commercial 

The distribution of employment opportunities are wide across the Gold Coast, although there are pockets of concentrated areas for office workers. Southport is the largest office market on the Gold Coast, followed by Robina Varsity Lakes, Bundall, Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach. Most accessible by: train, light rail, bus and car.

Industrial 

Industrial areas are more spread across the local government area varying from warehouses and industrial unit estates. Most accessible by: bus, car and/or train. Suburbs along the Pacific Motorway include: Yatala, Stapylton, Ormeau, Pimpama, Coomera and Nerang. Suburbs on the Gold Coast Highway include: Arundel, Molendinar, Ashmore, Southport, Burleigh Heads, Currumbin. 

See the full report to view the map.