Metropolitan Sydney
Sydney as a Metropolitan City
Geography
Geographically, Sydney is fringed by the Tasman Sea to the east, the Blue Mountains to the west, the Hawkesbury River to the north and the Woronora Plateau to the south. The Parramatta, Georges and Cooks Rivers are some of the major tributaries that flow to the coastline of Sydney.
The Sydney Metropolitan Area (classified as the Sydney Statistical Division by the Australian Bureau of Statistics) extends from Wyong and Gosford in the north to the Royal National Park in the south and follows the coastline in between. Towards the west, the region includes the Blue Mountains, Wollondilly and Hawkesbury. The area covers 12,428.4km² and is made up of 38 Local Government Areas (LGA) within the Sydney region and five LGAs in the Sydney Surrounds (Wyong, Gosford, Blue Mountains, Wollondilly and Hawkesbury). A list of the LGAs comprising this area can be found on the NSW Department of Local Government website.
These LGAs contain more than 300 suburbs which are largely linked by a complex transport network including heavy and light rail services, public and private bus services, ferry services, taxis and a road and cycle network.
- Map of Greater Sydney | PDF 1.4Mb
- Map of Inner Sydney | PDF 1.8Mb
Residential Population
Metropolitan Sydney is home to a diverse residential population which is often attracted to the city’s economic strength and quality of life. While two-thirds of Sydney’s population growth is from a natural increase, the city is also a magnet for people from elsewhere in Australia and overseas.
During the 2006 ABS Census, the total population of the Sydney Statistical Division was 4,119,190. This population was made up of 49.3% males and 50.7% females, with 1.1% of the total population being Indigenous persons. The total population increased by 9.91% between the 1996 ABS Census and the 2001 Census, followed by an increase of 4.33% between 2001 and 2006. The overall population increase between 1996 and 2006 was 14.7%.
The current 2008 Estimated Resident Population for the Sydney Metropolitan Area is 4,399,722. Based on a total site area of 12,428.4km², the current population density of the Sydney Metropolitan Area is 354 persons per square kilometre.
The median age of the population within the Sydney Metropolitan Area is 35. This is two years lower than the median age for the whole population of Australia, which is 37. In the 2006 Census 19.6% of the population were children aged between 0-14 years, and 22.5% were persons aged 55 years and over.
Sydney’s multicultural makeup is evident in the statistics relating to the country of birth for residents of the total Sydney Metropolitan Area population. Of the total population, 60.4% were born in Australia. The five most common countries of birth, other than Australia, were England with 3.5% of the population, China with 2.6%, New Zealand with 2.0%, Vietnam with 1.5% and Lebanon with 1.3%. Within the same Sydney region, 64.0% of the population speak only English at home. The most common languages other than English spoken at home were: Arabic (3.9%), Cantonese (3.0%), Mandarin (2.3%), Greek (1.9%) and Vietnamese (1.8%).
The weekly income of residents within the Sydney Metropolitan Area is slightly higher than the weekly income for all Australian residents. In Sydney, the median weekly individual income for persons aged 15 years and over was $518, compared with $466 in Australia. The median weekly household income was $1,154, compared with $1,027 in Australia while the median weekly family income was $1,350, compared with $1,171 in Australia.
During the 2006 Census there were 1,521,465 occupied private dwellings counted in Sydney: 61.7% were separate houses, 11.8% were semi-detached, row or terrace houses or townhouses, 25.7% were flats, units or apartments and 0.7% were other dwellings. Of those occupied private dwellings 68.1% were family households, 21.6% were lone person households and 3.9% were group households. Of the total family households 33.2% were couples without children, 32.8% were couples with children, 15.6% were one-parent families and 1.9% were other families.
Business and Workforce
At a metropolitan level, Sydney, as Australia’s global city, is the financial and business services hub of Australia. It also has a concentration of jobs within the multimedia and communications industries, tourism and hospitality industries and cultural industries. The jobs within these industries are generally concentrated in major centres including the CBD, Parramatta, North Sydney, Chatswood, Bondi Junction, Liverpool, Campbelltown, Blacktown and Hurstville. Specialised business parks have increasingly accommodated jobs over the past 20 years, including Norwest Business Park, Macquarie Park and Sydney Olympic Park. The remainder of Sydney’s jobs are spread throughout smaller centres, industrial areas or in small neighbourhood precincts.
During the 2006 census the total labour force for the Sydney Metropolitan Area was just over 2 million persons, which includes over 100,000 persons (5.3%) with an unemployed status. The Sydney Metropolitan labour force represents nearly 21% of the total national labour force. Of the total Sydney labour force, 63.1% was employed on a full-time basis, while 25.7% was employed on a part-time basis and 3.2% was employed but away from work at the time of the census.
The most common occupation for persons within the Sydney Metropolitan Area was Professionals with 23.8% of the range of occupations. Clerical and Administrative Workers made up 16.7% of all employed persons, while Managers accounted for 13.2%, followed by Technicians and Trades Workers with 12.7%.
The most common industry of employment for those usually residing within the Sydney area was School Education, with 4.0% of all industries. The second largest industry of employment was Cafes, Restaurants and Takeaway Food Services (3.6%), followed by Hospitals (3.2%) and Legal and Accounting Services (2.8%).
For the financial year ending 2006, the ABS recorded 441,000 registered businesses within the Sydney Metropolitan Area. Nearly 58% of those registered businesses were non-employing businesses, while 27.9% employed between one and four employees and the remainder (14.1%) employed five or more employees. The ABS also recorded 72,000 business entries and 70,000 business exits for the financial year ending 2006.
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Last Updated: Wednesday 7 April, 2010
