Newcastle vs Port Stephens

Newcastle and Port Stephens are nearby areas with very different layouts. Newcastle is very walkable, with 88.1% of homes in a 15-minute-city walkshed and a typical resident having 7.0 amenity types within a short walk. In contrast, Port Stephens is only somewhat walkable, with just 47.7% of homes in such a walkshed. The gap in accessibility is stark; for example, 76.0% of Newcastle homes are within 15 minutes of health services compared to just 24.8% in Port Stephens. Newcastle also has a larger First Nations population, where 43.6% of First Nations people completed Year 12, which is far higher than the 32.6% in Port Stephens.

Everyday life in both places shares a similar experience for First Nations people, who have almost identical unemployment rates of around 9%. They also share a similar landscape, as the average terrain slope is nearly the same in both areas. While Newcastle has higher personal and household incomes for First Nations residents, both areas have similar proportions of people who speak a First Nations language.