A Census snapshot of the Hills LGA (NSW)

The results from the national Census give a fascinating snapshot of life in The Hills LGA. The boundaries of The Hills local government area have changed only slightly since the 2011 Census allowing interesting comparisons of how we have changed over half a decade.

Changing households

Homes in The Hills contain slightly more people now (3.2 on average compared to 3.1 in 2011), and two in three have four or more bedrooms compared to just one in three nationally. However they are less likely to be a detached house than 5 years ago (82.4% compared to 84.1% in 2011) and less likely to be owned outright (34.5%, down from 36% in 2011). The costs of housing have been outstripping earnings with rents up 25% since 2011 but average household incomes only up 16%.

Culturally diverse

When compared to the national findings, local households are 35% more likely to be couple families with children, 34% more likely to have at least two cars, and 33% more likely to have at least one parent born overseas. Interestingly more Hills residents report their ancestry as English than Australian, even though only 3.3% of locals were born in England. In fact more people in the Hills were born in China (5.1%) and India (3.6%) than England, with South Korea and South Africa rounding out the top 5 for those born overseas. One in three residents speaks a language other than English at home, with that now most likely to be Mandarin, which has just overtaken Cantonese, showing the more recent migration patterns from mainland China.

Religious affiliations

While locals most commonly identify their religion as Christianity (64.8%), it has declined, while Hinduism has seen the biggest increase, from 3.1% in 2011 to 4.5% now. Of the 650 suburbs in Sydney, Castle Hill has the most number of Anglicans at 5,748 which places it 4th largest nationally for Anglicans.

Age of residents

The Shire continues to have a younger profile than the rest of Australia with more people under 20 and less people over 65 than the national average. However while 2011 showed a deficit of 30-34 year olds locally compared to the state and national average, this latest data shows a surplus of 35-39 year olds indicating that while those in their twenties and early thirties do leave the Hills, it seems as if they also boomerang on back.

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