Newcastle vs Singleton

Newcastle and Singleton are two very different environments. Newcastle is a very walkable area where 88.1% of homes have a 15-minute-city walkshed and 97.2% are within a 10-minute walk of public transport. In contrast, Singleton is mostly car-dependent, with only 26.9% of homes in a similar walkshed and 53.1% near public transport. This gap extends to essential services, with 81.2% of Newcastle homes within a 15-minute walk of groceries compared to just 22.8% in Singleton. Newcastle also has a much larger First Nations population of 7,409 people, and 43.6% of First Nations residents there finish Year 12, which is far higher than the 30.4% in Singleton.

Daily life in both places shares some similarities, such as the typical personal income for First Nations residents, which is around $661 to $684. Both areas also have a very similar terrain slope of about 6%. While the two are similar in these ways, the gap in walkability remains a defining difference, as Newcastle has far more street intersections per square kilometre than Singleton.