







































AUSTRALIAN POPULATION STUDIES  2017 | Volume 1 | Issue 1 | pages 69–72 

 

© Lieske 2017. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence 3.0 Australia  
(CC BY-NC 3.0 AU). Journal website: www.australianpopulationstudies.org 

Urban, suburban and rural 
household density trends 

Scott N. Lieske* The University of Queensland 

*Corresponding author. Scott N. Lieske. Email: scott.lieske@uq.edu.au. Address: School of 

Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072, 

Australia 

Paper received 17 September 2017; accepted 23 October 2017; published 20 November 2017 

Census data may be used to illuminate changing patterns in urban and regional Australia, to inform 

policy development and to help us to better understand our surroundings. When visualised, census 

data can provide a straightforward means for planners and decision-makers both to identify spatial 

and temporal patterns and to consider the implications of those patterns for the future (Coffee, 

Lange and Baker 2016). The visual presentation of census data can also allow citizens to better 

interpret their lived experience in Australia’s capital cities and suburbs.  

This DemoGraphic examines change over time in numbers of households and household density for 

the entirety of Australia. Dwelling density is used rather than population density as the former shows 

not just where we are growing, but how we are growing. An investigation into household locations 

reveals trends in the preferred built forms of Australian life.  

The methods used in this analysis for understanding changes in household density are based on 

Kolko (2015a, 2015b and 2016), who presents a method for analysing the share of households that 

live in census geographies with different densities. Kolko’s density classifications were developed via 

an online survey in the United States that asked people to describe where they lived within the 

constructs of ‘rural’, ‘suburban’ or ‘urban’. Analysis of the survey results found the best predictor of 

how people describe where they live is household density. Kolko (2016) used these survey results to 

collapse households in the United States (US) into eight density categories. Converted from 

households per square mile to households per square kilometre (km), these eight categories are:  

0–40; 41–193; 194–386; 387–578; 579–854; 855–1,930; 1,931–3,861; and 3,862+ households per 

square km. 

The low end of these density categories are largely congruent with the rural living and rural fringe 

rural residential development densities found in Australia. In Planning Australia: An Overview of 

Urban and Regional Planning, Sinclair and Bunker (2007) characterise household densities in the 

range of 100 to 250 households per square km, the lower two suburban categories presented here, 

as rural fringe development. They characterise household densities in the range of 1 to 100 

households per square km as rural living, a notion congruent with the rural and low-density suburban 

household densities presented in this study.  

Extending Kolko’s approach to the Australian context, using data from the Australian Bureau of 

Statistics (ABS) Census of Population and Housing for 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016, household counts 

by Australian Statistical Geography Standard Statistical Area 2 (SA2) are presented in Figure 1. 

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http://www.australianpopulationstudies.org/
mailto:scott.lieske@uq.edu.au


70 Lieske S Australian Population Studies 1 (1) 2017   

 

 

Figure 1: Density of Australian households by SA2 area, 2001–2016 

Source: Calculated from ABS 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016 Census data. 

These results show a broad pattern of growth across all rural, suburban and urban density categories 

in Australia. The only exception is the second highest suburban density category, which shows a 

decrease in households from 2001–2006. These results suggest the variety of residential choices 

from rural to high density urban each hold appeal to various segments of Australia’s growing 

population. 

Insight may also be gained by considering the spatial pattern of these results. McGuirk and Argent 

(2011) noted that urban expansion, peri-urban growth and population increases above the national 

average were occurring in Australia’s four mega-metropolitan areas: Geelong–Melbourne–

Mornington Peninsula in Victoria; Sunshine Coast–Brisbane–Gold Coast in south-east Queensland; 

Newcastle–Sydney–Wollongong in New South Wales; and Wanneroo–Perth–Mandurah in Western 

Australia. Taking advantage of the consistent spatial units for the 2006, 2011 and 2016 censuses 

available in the ABS 2016 Time Series Profile (ABS 2017), we can illustrate how the changes described 

by McGuirk and Argent (2011) can occur over a relatively short period of time.  

Figure 2 presents the household densities shown in Figure 1 for two time periods, 2006 and 2016, 

combined into just three categories: rural (0–40 households per square km); suburban (41–854 

households per square km); and urban (855+ households per square km). Results are presented for 

two of Australia’s mega-metropolitan areas: Geelong–Melbourne–Mornington Peninsula in Victoria; 

and Sunshine Coast–Brisbane–Gold Coast in south-east Queensland. 

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Australian Population Studies 1 (1) 2017 Lieske S 71 

 

 

Figure 2: Neighbourhood density categories of Australian households 2006 and 2016 in the mega-metro 

regions of Geelong–Melbourne–Mornington Peninsula and Sunshine Coast–Brisbane–Gold Coast 

The mapped results in Figure 2 support Coffee, Lange and Baker (2016), who found that populations 

were increasing beyond the middle-ring suburbs of cities and towards the outlying suburban fringe. 

The results are congruent also with Spencer, Gill and Schmahmann (2015, p. 1), who observed that a 

‘significant proportion’ of the population of Australia’s three largest cities live at low suburban 

densities. They further observed: ‘Australia’s reputation as … highly urbanised perhaps belies the 

predominance of low density development across Australia’s metropolitan areas. Australian cities … 

feature pockets of high density among a background of low density’ (Spencer, Gill and Schmahmann 

2015, p. 1). ABS 2016 Census data show that while urban areas are expanding rapidly in terms of 

population and households, suburban areas are expanding rapidly in terms of space. It appears 

Australia is rapidly becoming a suburban nation.  

There is a continuing need to develop and refine our understanding of the processes, drivers and 

consequences of urban growth and expansion. Suburbanisation in Australia and other changes in 

household density can be linked with population growth and other demographic trends such as 

movement of particular age cohorts, patterns of socioeconomic advantage and disadvantage, the 

location of housing and employment and lags in middle and outer ring infrastructure provision 

(O’Neill 2010; McGuirk and Argent 2011). They are associated also with impacts on environmental 

quality, agricultural production, climate change vulnerability and resilience.  

The results presented in this paper also raise the issue of mega-city governance put forward by 

Steele et al. (2011). Further, the considerable expansion of suburban development between 2006 

and 2016 combined with decreasing housing affordability over the same time period suggests that 

the issue of housing affordability will not be solved by supply alone.  



72 Lieske S Australian Population Studies 1 (1) 2017   

 

References 

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2017) 2003.0 – Census of Population and Housing: time series profile, 

Australia, 2016, viewed 21 July 2017, 

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/2003.0?OpenDocument. 

Coffee N T, Lange J, Baker E (2016) Visualising 30 years of population density change in Australia’s major 

capital cities. Australian Geographer 47(4): 511–525. doi: 10.1080/00049182.2016.1220901. 

Kolko J (2015a) Data and methodological details, viewed 4 May 2016, http://jedkolko.com/wp-

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Kolko J (2015b) How suburban are big American cities?, viewed 4 May 2016, 

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O’Neill P M (2010) Infrastructure financing and operation in the contemporary city. Geographical 

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Sinclair I and Bunker R (2007) Planning for rural landscapes. In: Thompson S (ed.) Planning Australia: An 

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Spencer A, Gill J and Schmahmann L (2015) Urban or suburban? Examining the density of Australian cities 

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