November 1, 2002

Embargoed 11:30am (AEST)

150/2002

The Australian Bureau of Statistics' 2001 Census Adelaide Social Atlas was released today by the Hon. Jay Weatherill, South Australian Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Local Government and Minister for Administrative Services.

The Social Atlas features colour maps of key social and demographic characteristics for Adelaide at the time of the 2001 Census. New labour force and educational results specific to Adelaide derived from the 2001 Census were released today in the Social Atlas.

The ABS' South Australian Regional Director, Ian Crettenden said the Atlas was a rich source of information for everyone living in Adelaide.

"The extensive range and depth of information will be a very useful resource for many different organisations, businesses and groups in the community", he said.

"The Social Atlas really is a great way to discover Adelaide".

The Social Atlas allows users to visualise in map form the unique characteristics of Adelaide captured from the 2001 Census. Maps range on topics such as population, ethnicity, families, income, Internet use, dwellings and much more.

"The census is a major project conducted every five years to gather information critical for the planning of Adelaide and indeed our nation", Mr Crettenden said.

"The 2001 Census received excellent support from the Australian public", he said.

Media please note:

The atlases for Perth, Sydney and Hobart were released earlier this week. A comprehensive information kit containing the relevant publication and CD ROM of broadcast/print quality versions of the maps is available to the media on request for reporting purposes.

Social atlases for Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Darwin will be released over the coming months.


2001 SOCIAL ATLAS SERIES - EXPLORE ADELAIDE

The 2001 Census Social Atlas for Adelaide was released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today.

The social atlas features colour maps of the key social and demographic characteristics of Adelaide, at the time of the 2001 Census. Some points of interest for Adelaide were:

Population

The Adelaide atlas area contains 70.3% of the population of South Australia, and grew by 3.7% (almost 13,000 people) between the 1996 and 2001 Censuses. Population growth reflected residential developments in the outer suburbs such as Golden Grove and Mawson Lakes. There were also pockets of redevelopment in areas such as Port Adelaide which added to an increase in population for those areas.

Since the 1996 Census, the population in the CBD of Adelaide grew by 18.4% to 9,369 people in 2001.

Age groups

Adelaide had the lowest proportion of younger age groups of all Australian capital cities. Children under 15 years represented 18.7% of the total population, compared with 20.4% average across all capital cities.

Almost a quarter (24.1%) of the population in Adelaide was aged 55 years or more. The average for this age group in Australian capital cities was 19.9%.

Older people (aged 75 years or older) were generally found within 10-12 kilometres of the city centre. This age group accounted for 7.4% of the population in 2001, an increase from 5.5% of the population in 1991.

The proportion of younger people in the total population is steadily declining - people aged under 25 years comprised 32.6% of the population in 2001, compared with 36.1% in 1991.

Birthplace

Almost a quarter (24.6%) of the people counted in Adelaide were born overseas (242,092 people). Overseas-born people were found primarily in the western and northern suburbs, and there were many overseas-born students residing in areas close to the city.

People born overseas and had arrived in Australia since 1996 accounted for 2.2% of the population (61,826 people). More than 40% of recent arrivals were under 25 years old, and 22.1% of recent arrivals were tertiary students.

Education/qualifications

There was an increase in the number of people with university qualifications. They made up 17.9% of the labour force in 2001, compared with 11.1% in 1991.

People with university qualifications were most concentrated in the eastern and south-eastern suburbs and along the coast in beachside suburbs from Largs Bay to Hallett Cove. The Stirling/Bridgewater area also had high proportions of people holding university qualifications.

There was a minor increase in those people who had skilled vocational qualifications (for example, tradespeople) from 14.6% of the labour force in 1991 to 15.0% in 2001. The proportion of people without qualifications fell from 62.1% of the labour force in 1991 to 52.4% in 2001

People without qualifications were most likely to live in the western and outer suburbs of Adelaide. Adelaide shared with Brisbane the highest proportion of unqualified people in all capital cities.

Living arrangements

The average household size fell from 2.6 people in 1991 to 2.4 people in 2001 - this follows a national trend in decreasing household sizes. The largest average household sizes were generally in suburbs 10 kilometres or more from the city centre, where there were high proportions of families with children.

More than 114,500 people lived alone in Adelaide. People living alone increased from 8.5% of the total population in 1991 to 11.5% in 2001. The largest group was aged 65 years or older (38.2% of all people living alone).

There was an increase in lone parent families with dependent children (from 9.5% of all families in 1991 to 11.6% in 2001) and a corresponding decrease in couples with dependent children (from 39.6% in 1991 to 35.1% in 2001).

DINKs (double income, no kids) comprised 5.8% of all families. The highest percentages of DINKs were located within 2-3 kilometres of the city centre.

Working arrangements

Unemployment continued to be concentrated most in the northern, outer northern and outer southern suburbs, in areas such as Angle Park, Elizabeth, Smithfield, and Christie Downs.

More than 16% of the labour force (79,067 people) were mothers with dependent children, mainly found in the eastern, hills, and developing outer suburbs.

Managers, administrators and professionals comprised of more than a quarter of all employed people, and were highly concentrated in the eastern and hills suburbs. The outer northern and southern areas had high proportions of elementary skilled workers (tradespeople, service industries, retail, etc.).

Transport

More than 80% of Adelaide people travelled to work by car, with only 8.5% of these people travelling as passengers. Less than 10% of employed people used public transport to get to work.

Housing

Almost one-third of dwellings (124,729 dwellings or 31.0%) were being purchased by their occupants, primarily in the outer suburbs where there were also high percentages of families with children. The proportion and distribution has remained relatively constant over the last three Census periods.

Rented dwellings made up more than a quarter (25.3%) of all occupied private dwellings. The proportion of dwellings rented from government agencies decreased from 42.6% of rented dwellings in 1991 to 32.0% in 2001. Most were in north-western suburbs (such as Angle Park and Ferryden Park), or in outer northern or outer southern suburbs.

Privately-owned rented dwellings were clustered around the city centre and comprised 16.6% of all occupied private dwellings, an increase from 15.4% in 1991.

Internet use

More than 30% of Adelaide's population aged 5 years or older used the Internet at home in the week before Census Night. Adelaide had the second lowest incidence of Internet use after Hobart.