Region (SA4) · Area profile
Sydney - North Sydney and Hornsby
275 km²
Typical household incomes are among the highest in the country here, making Sydney - North Sydney and Hornsby a wealthy and highly qualified hub. This community is defined by a professional workforce and a high proportion of university-educated residents. While the population is growing and increasingly diverse, the area is marked by a shift toward high-density living and a very strong trend of working from home. It is a well-resourced region where most people live within a short walk of essential services and parks.
An affluent area whose schools serve an equally well-off community.
Explore Sydney - North Sydney and Hornsby by topic
The population has grown by 13% since 2011 to 424,045 people. Residents are slightly older than the national figure, and the area has a very low proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at 0.4%.
This is a diverse area where 41.7% of people were born overseas, a figure far above the national average. English, Australian, and Chinese are the most common ancestries.
About 32% of residents use a language other than English at home, which is well above the national figure. Mandarin is the most common non-English language spoken.
A large proportion of the community reports no religion at 42%, a figure that has risen 17 points since 2011. Christianity remains the most common affiliation at 43%.
This is an exceptionally well-qualified area, with 53% of adults holding a bachelor degree or higher. Year 12 completion is also far above the national average at 83.2%.
Typical weekly family incomes are well above the national figure at $3,309. The area is a major pocket of wealth, with 43.2% of households earning $3,000 or more per week.
Residents enjoy better health than most other areas, with a much lower rate of long-term health conditions (22.8%) and fewer people needing help with daily activities.
Volunteering is much more common here than in most areas, with 18% of people pitching in. There is also a high rate of unpaid childcare and housework.
The First Nations community in this area is smaller than in most similar regions, but they have very high Year 12 completion rates (68.3%) and high typical personal incomes.
Most homes are occupied by couples with children (63.7%), and the area has a much lower rate of one-parent families than the state average.
Housing is expensive and increasingly dense, with flats or apartments making up 46% of all homes. Typical weekly rents are well above the national figure at $560.
A striking 54.3% of the workforce now works from home, a massive increase from 6.3% in 2011. Many homes have no motor vehicle, and public transport access is high.
The population is quite mobile, with 43.2% of people moving house in the last five years. Recent overseas arrivals make up 14.6% of the community.
The area has a very strong job market, with 63.6% of people employed full-time and an unemployment rate of 4.0%, which is much lower than most areas.
The population has grown by 5% since 2021, though this growth is a little below the New South Wales average.
The region is characterized by high rainfall, averaging 1,472mm annually, which is far above the state average.
This is a walker's paradise with a high walkability score of 8.1. Almost every home is within a 15-minute walk of a park, school, or public transport stop.