How liveable is your community?

Features and updates
How liveable is your community?
Andrew  Hedge

Andrew Hedge

Product Marketing Manager (Industry)

Key Highlights

  • The article delves into what residents value in their communities, highlighting factors such as affordable housing, quality health services, efficient public transport, and a strong sense of community. 
  • Utilising data from Ipsos Public Affairs Victoria's "Life in Australia" study, the piece examines how different communities perceive liveability and what attributes contribute to a good quality of life.
  • The article compares liveability perceptions between metropolitan Melbourne and regional areas in Victoria, revealing variations in what residents prioritize in their living environments. 
  • By integrating social research with existing demographic data, the article provides a more nuanced understanding of community needs, aiding local governments in policy and planning decisions. 
  • The piece mentions ongoing efforts to develop tools that help local councils better understand residents' experiences, aiming to enhance liveability through informed decision-making.

What makes somewhere a good place to live?

Do different communities value different things? Where is the lived experience considered relatively good, and where do people feel it is relatively poor?

In this piece, we share some fascinating liveability data from social researchers Ipsos that complements the demographic data available in our online tools.

For our partners in Local Government, we think this data offers important insights into how people perceive their local area – what they value in a community, what they think the local area offers, and what it’s missing – helping to shape policy and planning responses in areas ranging from health and economic development to housing and infrastructure.

For 20 years we’ve been working to arm local councils and the community with demographic data to answer questions like ‘how many people are in housing stress?’ and ‘where are the people who have a need for assistance?’ or ‘how do people get to work?’.

This data will often highlight a pinch-point in a community (such as a rapidly ageing population) that requires a response in terms of services or infrastructure, but it doesn’t always capture the subtleties of the lived experience in that area.

At a time when many parts of Australia are experiencing signficiant demographic change, it’s worth asking ‘what’s it like to live in this place?’. What do people value? And how do they feel their communities measure up to those values?

And while it’s safe to assume that people do want access to affordable housing, high-quality health services, and reliable and efficient public transport, how much do people value these community attributes, relative to, say, a prosperous economy or a strong sense of community?

Measuring liveability

To answer these questions, we recently sat down with social researchers from Ipsos Public Affairs Victoria to review Life in Australia – their annual study of community values and the lived experience in our communities.

The report measures ‘liveability’ by surveying factors such as Feeling Safe, Affordable decent housing, and Access to the natural environment (among many others) to find out how much we value each, and how different local communities, cities, regions and states measure up against these attributes.

Some findings from liveability research

What makes somewhere a great place to live?

These are the top-ranked attributes that make somewhere a great place to live, according to those surveyed for the 2017 edition of Life in Australia.

Click the link above to see how respondents ranked the full list of 16 attributes included in the survey, including the top-five most valued attributes nation-wide, and how each state performed for each.

Metropolitan vs regional values

In Victoria, there were some marked differences between metropolitan Melbourne and Regional areas, both in terms of what people valued and how well the different parts of the state ranked for each.

For example, 40% of regional respondents nominated A strong sense of community as one of the top-five things they thought made somewhere a good place to live, compared to just 28% of respondents from Metropolitan Melbourne.

Combining Census data and social research

A clear story emerges when we examine the correlation between areas experiencing high population growth, and the percentage of respondents who recorded a lower than average score for ‘feeling safe‘ in their community.

Melburnians from low-growth Local Government Areas (LGAs) feel safer than those who live in LGAs that have experienced a higher rate of growth in the last decade.

Liveability rankings by Local Government Area

The liveability data by Local Government Area reveals how different parts of Greater Melbourne offer different community characteristics – you might call them lifestyle options – to their residents.

Though not all these characteristics made the overall top-five values for liveability, looking at how different LGAs ranked for affordable decent housing, good job prospects, a diverse range of shopping, leisure and dining experiences and a strong sense of community reveals the trade-offs people make when choosing a place to live (presumably, they choose a place that best aligns with their own idea of what makes somewhere a great place to live).

 

 

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