What do Australia’s population and business data say about where to open?
Short analyses of Australian data, each built around one question a retailer or a franchisor actually asks, with the full tables behind the answer.
K-Stra insights rank the 231 Australian councils with more than 20,000 residents on one question at a time: who is growing, who earns most, where people rent, where the old and the young live, and where shops lag behind new residents. Every figure comes from ABS data or K-Stra’s places catalogue, with the source and year beside it.
Which questions do the insights answer?
- Population growth
Which Australian councils are growing fastest?
Melton and Camden grew 39.9% in six years, on average 6.65% a year, more than four times the national pace.
Read the analysis - Capitals and regions
Did Australians leave the capital cities during the pandemic?
In the year to June 2021 the capitals shrank by 0.27% while the rest of Australia grew 0.99%.
Read the analysis - Shops and services
Do Australia’s fastest-growing councils have enough shops?
Melton has one pharmacy for every 7,719 residents; Australia has one for every 3,801.
Read the analysis - Housing
Where do Australians rent rather than own their home?
In twelve Australian councils at least half of homes are rented; nationally the share is 33.6%.
Read the analysis - Age
Where are Australia’s youngest and oldest communities?
Median age runs from 29.5 in the City of Melbourne to 55.0 in Eurobodalla, on the NSW South Coast.
Read the analysis - Income
Which Australian councils have the highest incomes?
Spending per resident ranges from A$36,146 a year in Nambucca Valley to A$80,728 in Karratha.
Read the analysis
How are K-Stra insights made?
Each article starts from a single table of 545 councils. The ABS list has 566 council codes, 548 of them with residents; the table keeps the ones in the six states, the Northern Territory and the ACT (a single area), and leaves out Christmas Island, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and the other external territories. It was extracted read-only from the K-Stra database on 1 November 2026. The calculations are the ones the app’s free area dashboard makes: median age from five-year age groups, and average yearly change as a simple average over 2019–2025, with the total growth beside it.
Rankings include only the 231 councils with at least 20,000 residents, which hold 93.3% of the people living in the 545 councils. Below that size a single mine, prison or retirement village can move a council to the top of a list.
Business counts come from the K-Stra places catalogue, as the app classifies each outlet. They count outlets, not floor space or sales, and residents, not visitors, so city centres and holiday towns always look generously served.
A council is still a large area. The articles say where to look; the decision about a site needs the catchment around its address, with residents and competitors inside the same drive time.
What else do people ask about K-Stra insights?
Where do the numbers in K-Stra insights come from?
From the same data the app uses: ABS population estimates for each year from 2019 to 2025, ABS personal income from tax data, the 2021 Census for housing, and the K-Stra places catalogue for businesses. Each table names its source and year.
Why rank councils and not suburbs?
Councils are the only small areas with a population estimate for every year, which a growth ranking needs. For a location decision the right area is the catchment of a site, which the app draws from any address.
Can I check a figure myself?
Yes. Every council, postcode and suburb has a free dashboard in K-Stra, opened by clicking its name on the map, with no account.
How often are the insights updated?
When the underlying data changes: the ABS releases council population estimates once a year, and the 2026 Census results arrive from June 2027. Each article carries the date it was last checked.
Check any council
on the map.
Every figure in these articles has a free dashboard in the app. Click a council, postcode or suburb to open it.
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