Around half of the city’s suburbs had not recovered their pre-pandemic head count by June 2023,new show. Among the largest declines compared with 2019 were Potts Point-Woolloomooloo (-2979),Kensington (-1115),Newtown (-906) and Bondi Beach-North Bondi (-896).
In contrast,the population has boomed in greenfield suburbs to the city’s west;Marsden Park-Shanes Park in Sydney’s north-west added nearly 18,000 people between 2019 and 2023.
Other suburbs to register strong post-pandemic growth include Wentworth Point-Sydney Olympic Park in the city’s central west,which added 6370 people in the period,and Mascot,which added 3700.
Sydney’s overall population growth slumped during pandemic border closures but has since recovered strongly;,an increase of 2.8 per cent. The population of Greater Sydney reached 5.45 million.
Some neighbourhoods are absorbing a disproportionate share of the post-COVID population surge.
There are huge variations in population growth across Sydney.Wolter Peeters
The head count in the north-western suburb of Box Hill-Nelson rose 27 per cent last financial year (+3854 people),while Marsden Park-Shanes Park grew by 20 per cent (+3908 people).
Inner suburban areas popular with overseas students grew strongly,including Ultimo (+19.3 per cent) and Chippendale (+12.5 per cent).
But in Rose Bay-Vaucluse-Watsons Bay the population fell 0.1 per cent,while Hunters Hill rose by 0.1 per cent,Wahroonga 0.3 per cent and Mona Vale-Warriewood North 0.8 per cent.
KPMG urban economist Terry Rawnsley said the lingering effects of the pandemic were influencing population growth patterns in Sydney,along with long-term demographic trends.
“The shock of COVID is still working its way through the system;we’ve had international migrants and students leaving during the pandemic then come back over the last year or so,and we’ve also got the effects of the ageing population,” he said.
“We’ve seen a surge in population in some places,especially in greenfields suburbs to the west,but there are still many pockets where population hasn’t recovered to pre-COVID levels,” he said.
Rawnsley said a host of suburbs in prime locations in Sydney’s eastern suburbs,lower north shore and inner west had relatively low growth.
“Those places have some of the best access to jobs and the best local infrastructure,but we’re not seeing much population increase there.”
Potts Point is the Sydney suburb which has suffered the biggest decline in population since 2019.Wolter Peeters
Very low or negative rates of natural increase (births minus deaths) underscored the effects of an ageing population in many wealthy districts.
Suburbs where deaths outnumbered births in the year to June 2023 included Hunters Hill-Woolwich (113 more deaths than births),Forestville-Killarney Heights (25 more deaths than births) and Avalon-Palm Beach (10 more deaths than births). In Woollahra,births outnumbered deaths by only one in the year,while in Rose Bay-Vaucluse-Watsons Bay the natural increase was two.
The north-western suburb of Schofields-East recorded Sydney’s largest natural increase of 502 in 2022-23.
Population growth varied markedly across council areas. Sydney City had the fastest increase at 5.9 per cent in the year to June 2023 followed by Camden (5.5 per cent) and The Hills Shire (4.4 per cent). The lowest growth was in Hunters Hill (+0.7 per cent) and Northern Beaches (+1.7 per cent).
Rawnsley said these post-COVID population growth patterns meant the distribution of Sydney’s housing resources had become much less efficient.
“We’ve got some places where every bedroom is occupied but in other parts of the city you’ve got an average of 1-to-1.5 bedrooms empty in every dwelling,which is not the most efficient use of our housing stock,” he said.
The NSW Labor government has announced in established Sydney suburbs,especially near train stations,in a bid to improve housing affordability. However,some
Sydney’s most densely populated areas also recorded large growth rates in the year to June 2023 (between 4 per cent and 11 per cent) with Sydney (South)-Haymarket,Chippendale,Zetland,Wolli Creek and Waterloo all packing more than 16,000 people per square kilometre,while Bilpin-Colo-St Albans in the Blue Mountains had just 1.3 people in the same space.
In regional NSW only a third of districts had a lower population in June 2023 than before COVID,a smaller share than in Sydney where 49 per cent of suburbs had fewer people than in 2019.
However,the population of flood-hit Lismore council shrunk by 367 last year,more than any other LGA in Australia.
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