1.8 ▼ -10.0%
Lower than 99% of council (lga) areas.
- 2011: 2.0
- 2016: 2.0
- 2021: 1.8
Average number of people usually resident per household.
Melbourne · Council (LGA)
Family & Households in Melbourne
How families and households are made up across the area.
Fewer people are living together in Melbourne than a decade ago, with the typical home now holding just 1.8 people. This shift is driven by a growing number of single-person households, which now make up 43.1% of all homes in the city.
1.8
▼ -10.0%
- 1.5: 3 areas
- 1.6: 1 area
- 1.7: 1 area
- 1.8: 5 areas
- 1.9: 5 areas
- 2.0: 9 areas
- 2.1: 26 areas
- 2.2: 77 areas
- 2.3: 107 areas
- 2.4: 90 areas
- 2.5: 83 areas
- 2.6: 39 areas
- 2.7: 30 areas
- 2.8: 18 areas
- 2.9: 13 areas
- 3.0: 3 areas
- 3.1: 9 areas
- 3.2: 5 areas
- 3.3: 2 areas
- 3.4: 4 areas
- 3.5: 5 areas
- 3.6: 1 area
- 3.7: 3 areas
- 3.8: 2 areas
- 3.9: 1 area
- 4.0: 1 area
- 4.1: 2 areas
- 4.2: 2 areas
- 4.3: 0 areas
- 4.4: 0 areas
- 4.5: 1 area
- 4.6: 0 areas
- 4.7: 0 areas
- 4.8: 1 area
- 4.9: 1 area
All council (lga) areas, 2021. The marker is Melbourne — lower than 99% of areas.
| Melbourne | 1.8 |
|---|---|
| Greater Melbourne | 2.6 |
| Victoria | 2.5 |
| Australia | 2.5 |
Households
Average household size.
Single-person homes have risen to 43.1%, a figure far above the 25.6% national average. This helps explain why the number of people per home has dropped to 1.8, which is well below the Victorian figure of 2.5.
43.1% ▲ +13.5%
Higher than 99% of council (lga) areas.
- 2011: 38.0%
- 2016: 36.2%
- 2021: 43.1%
Share of households that are a single person living alone.
Household size
View on map →Melbourne splits fairly evenly between 1 person (43%) and 2 people (40%), with 3 people at 11%.
Families
Family types and one-parent families.
Couples without children are the most common family type at 53.2%. Meanwhile, one-parent families make up 9.8% of the area, which is well below the national figure of 14.1%.
9.8% ▼ -7.8%
Lower than 82% of council (lga) areas.
- 2011: 10.6%
- 2016: 10.1%
- 2021: 9.8%
Share of people who live in one-parent families.
Family composition
View on map →In Melbourne, Couples without children is the majority at 53%; Couples with children is next at 32%.
Sources
- Census of Population and Housing — Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021 (CC BY 4.0).
More for Melbourne
Cite this page
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Family & Households in Melbourne [Census of Population and Housing]. CensusAtlas, used under CC BY 4.0. https://censusatlas.au/region/lga/LGA24600/melbourne/topic/family-households