Are Australians really having fewer children?
Demographics
GOVERNMENT TOOLS
business
CONSULTING
1. Local and national stories don't always match.
Just because something’s trending nationally, doesn’t mean it will play out for your community or business. Many of our breaking stories this year were hyper-local.
- This year we took a deep dive into the state of the education sector (featured in our detailed report here and by The Age here). What we found was stark differences between suburbs going through ‘baby booms’ and those that are aging. Where are you in the suburb life cycle? Will your area need more or fewer schools? And then, is there room for those schools and teachers to fill them?
- When we mapped the local impacts of AI, net zero targets, and tourism industry dependence, the results varied hugely. The change to come is completely different, depending on where you are and can vary widely even between neighbouring areas. Before you make any big calls for 2026, check your location on these three free risk maps.
- Different communities care about different things, and that changes how they view the choices of community and business leaders. Check out Dan Evans’ big take on the popular ‘Most Liveable Cities’ trend. What data on place will actually help you make the right calls next year?
The takeaway: run a quick health check with these reports and tools as you wind down for the year. Consider whether your needs match the national 'big story'.
2. Success Depends on Safety.
Our Living in Australia research revealed a major shift that affects every sector - perceptions of safety are declining nationwide.
How do we turn that insight into action?
For executive teams, this has implications not only for service demand and workforce behaviour, but also for how organisations communicate and lead change. When confidence drops, it’s more important than ever to work on trust and clarity when you explain and implement major decisions.
Safety concerns reinforce why understanding where change is happening, and who feels it most, matters deeply. And again - though this is a national trend, it’s playing out differently in different places, with several hotspots.
The Takeaway: understanding how your workforce, your market or your community is feeling is critical to landing your message. Check in on perceptions of safety before you kick off 2026!
3. Fast growth makes planning harder.
Fast growth isn’t always good growth! And rapid expansion requires top notch coordination.
Countless media articles this year mention growth issues. Property settlements impacted by unfinished utilities. Childcare services that rely on demountable buildings. Again and again, demand outstrips supply and the answers aren't simple.
Complex growth factors have become an important location decision, often impacting the viability of new development. Industry can no longer just rely on demand modelling.
The takeaway: planners facing big targets need reliable, layered data. Make sure you have the bird's eye view. Start by checking out the kinds of data that might inform your government or business project - and remember, we offer consulting to help you untangle growing pains - over 28 years we've seen it all!
4. It's crunch time for aged care.
Australia is heading into a demographic turning point. Over the next twenty years we will add more than 2.5 million people aged 65 plus and 1.3 million aged 80 plus.
At the same time, the workforce needed to support them is ageing, dispersing and becoming harder to attract in many of the communities where demand will rise fastest. This is unfolding just as a new rights based, risk based aged care framework is introduced. We've long known this was coming, but the crunch point has arrived.
These forces are reshaping what aged care feasibility looks like. Our upcoming report (spoiler alert!) will show how demographics, workforce depth and housing dynamics combine to determine where pressure will build and what decision makers will need to know to plan reliable, sustainable aged care services across Australia.
The takeaway: stay tuned and watch this space. Our nation is changing, but we're here to make sure all your decisions about it, are informed decisions!
Image: @Lovleah via Canva Pro
Meet the team of experts
Our specialists have deep expertise in demographics and spatial analysis, urban economics, housing research, social research and population forecasting
Daniel Evans
Head of Sales & Retention (Gov.)
Andrew Hedge
Product Marketing Manager (Industry)
Ben Saines
Demographic Consultant
Boris Wong
Client Engagement Manager (WA)
Crystal McDonald
Lead Housing Consultant
Daniel Corbett
Head of Product (Government)
Dieter Krusic-Golub
Sales & Account Management (VIC/SA/TAS)
Brigid Quinlan
Views Delivery
Chris Jones
Forecaster
Beth Reeve
Customer Success Manager
Georgia Allan
Customer Success Manager