Title: Sydney At A Glance
ProofReader - October 5, 2005 04:39 PM (GMT)
From the City of Sydney website:"The City of Sydney Local Government Area (LGA) covers approximately 26.15 square kilometres. This includes the former City of Sydney comprising the Central Business District (CBD), the Rocks, Millers Point, Ultimo, Pyrmont, Surry Hills, Woolloomooloo, Kings Cross, Elizabeth Bay, Rushcutters Bay, Darlinghurst, Chippendale, Darlington, Camperdown, Forest Lodge and Glebe.
The other part of the merged entity is the former City of South Sydney comprising the suburbs of Alexandria, Beaconsfield, Centennial Park, Erskineville, Newtown, Redfern, Rosebery, Waterloo, Zetland, and the remainder of Surry Hills.
Within the boundaries of the City of Sydney, waterways and some public areas are under the executive control of various State Government agencies. These include the Sydney Harbour Foreshores Authority, the Department of Transport, Sydney Ports Corporation, the Centennial and Moore Park Trust and the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust.
Other State Government agencies also have environmental responsibilities in the Sydney LGA. The Commonwealth Department of Defence has administrative control over Garden Island.
The amalgamated area – with the attendant residents, business activities and attractions – has enhanced the diversity of the City of Sydney whilst at the same time maintaining its community of interest.
In the data that follows, every attempt has been made to adjust the data to reflect the amalgamated area based on currently available information. Where the data only refers to part of the LGA that distinction is explicitly made.
The Physical Environment and Climate
The City of Sydney is located at 33 degrees 52 minutes South and 151 degrees 12 minutes East. Sydney Harbour forms approximately a quarter of the City’s boundaries.
Sydney annual average of sunshine is almost seven hours a day. Its temperature ranges from a moderate average winter minimum of 9 and a maximum of 16 degrees Celsius to a peak summer maximum of 26 degrees Celsius.
Sydney’s rainfall totals 1183 mm a year. More than one third of this falls between March and May. The number of wet days each month averages twelve.
The City in a National Context
Based on industry-mix and relative occupational wage levels, it is estimated that Economic Activity (GDP) generated in the City of Sydney in 2003-2004 was approximately $63 billion.
This represents over 8% (nearly one-twelfth) of the total national Australian economy, over 30% of the Sydney metropolitan area and almost one-quarter of the GDP of the entire state of NSW. Put into perspective, this is larger than the economies of South Australia and Tasmania combined.
Most importantly, the majority of this economic activity is in those industries which are dominant in the global economy – Business and Financial Services and Telecommunications.
The City is also Australia’s iconic face to the world- its international visitor flag-bearer. Over half of all international visitors come to Sydney and two-thirds of international business visitors.
According to the International Visitor Survey, seven of the top ten most popular attractions in Australia are in the City of Sydney LGA, headed by Sydney Shopping and the Opera House.
The consequence is that the City is the prime driver of the Australian economy. In the past decade, the economy of the City grew at a rate which averaged over 1% more than the Australian average.
The City in a Metropolitan Context
In the period 1996-2001, the City of Sydney absorbed a massive 28% of the entire Sydney metropolitan employment growth. This rate of employment growth in the City was double its current share of Sydney employment (14%).This employment growth supported and encouraged an exceptional renaissance in inner-city living.
Since 1996, the resident population of the City of Sydney has increased by just under 50,000 people, over 40 %, and by more than 20,000 since the last Population census in 2001.
At June 2004, the ABS estimated the resident population at 146,297. By December 2004, it had just ticked over 150,000, based on dwelling completions.
This rapid growth is expected to continue into the immediate future with the resident population set to increase to 180,000 by 2009, a further increase of 30,000 or almost 20% higher than the June 2004 estimate.
The Built Form of the City
Given its location as the economic and cultural heart of the Sydney metropolitan area, the City of Sydney is highly and densely urbanised. Its land is intensively used for a variety of purposes including residential and commercial use as well as tourist and cultural attractions and parks and open space. Indeed, it is home to the highest commercial and residential densities in Australia. This intensity of land-use very much determines its built form.
Given its density, most floor space in the City of Sydney is used for commercial purposes, devoted to financial, retail, tourism, entertainment and other business services. It is estimated that there are over 20,800 business establishments in the total LGA.
There are over 15 million square metres of built form within the CBD of the City. Over 5.3 million square metres of internal floor area is devoted to office uses. This is the largest CBD office market in Australia and well within the top 20 world-wide.
A Community of Diversity
The City of Sydney has a diverse ethnic mix with half of its residents born overseas. Almost 30% of the resident population speaks a language other than English. Apart from English, the most common languages spoken at home are Chinese, Indonesian, Greek and Russian. The City is home to one of Sydney’s largest communities of Aboriginal peoples.
Almost half of city residents are aged between 20 and 40. Conversely, there are fewer teenagers, children and older people residing in the City of Sydney than in the Sydney metropolitan area.
The influx of young residents into the City of Sydney is reflected in the growing number of single people living here. More than half of City residents aged 15 and over have never married, compared with one-third in the Sydney Metropolitan area.
Just less than a quarter of city residents live alone in one-person households. The majority (60%) of city residents live in family households with a partner and/or children or other relatives. Group households accommodate just under one-in-five.
Over a quarter of City residents are currently attending an educational institution, including just under one in five of those aged 15 and over undertaking a post-school course. There are 18,736 residents attending either a TAFE or University with nearly 9,000 on a full-time basis.
On average, individual residents in the City earn more than their counterparts in the Sydney Metropolitan Area ($577 per week median compared to $445). Over a quarter of residents aged 15 or more have a weekly income of over $1000 a week. Conversely, over 20% receive less than $200 per week.
One-third of the City resident households either own or are paying off their dwelling. Of the remaining two-thirds who rent, the vast majority rent from the private sector. These represent just on half (49%) of all resident households. However, a significant further 14% are public and community housing tenants.
Less than 60% of households in the City of Sydney own a car, compared to more than 85% for the Sydney metropolitan area. The average number of cars per household is only 0.7 compared to 1.4 for the Sydney metropolitan area.
Almost a quarter of City of Sydney residents walk to work (24%), compared to only 4.3% for the Sydney metropolitan area. Only marginally more (28%) drive a car to work. This is less than the proportion that use public transport (32%).
Workforce of the City of Sydney
It is estimated that employment for the current City of Sydney LGA totalled approximately 345,000. This represents an increase of more than 12% since 1996.
With the prospective improvement in the global economy and the translation of this into white-collar job growth in the latter part of 2004, together with continued strong growth in the domestic economy, is expected to see a continuation of the “recovery” in the levels of the City of Sydney workforce, recently evident.
One-third (33%) of the City’s workforce is in a Professional occupation with a further 27% employed either as Managers or Associate Professionals. The proportion of these skilled workers has increased significantly in the last decade.
Just under 40% of the City workforce was born overseas, with one-third of overseas born workers coming from Asia. A further 18% and 9% were born in UK and New Zealand respectively.
The median average income of the City Workforce is $860 per week, or an annual income of $44,850. One-fifth of the workforce has an income of more than $1,500 per week and a further fifth receives between $1,000 and $1,500.
Visitors to the City of Sydney
In the year to Dec 2004, 2.4 million international visitors came to the Sydney Metropolitan area. This represented more than half of all international visitors to Australia. Accommodation establishments in the City of Sydney LGA provide almost three-fifths of all rooms in the Sydney metropolitan Tourism Region.
In calendar year 2004, annual room nights occupied in the City of Sydney totalled an estimated annual 5.3 million. This room night demand was represented an increase of over 200,000 or 4.1% over 2003. Industry experts forecast demand to expand by an annual average of 4.4% over the next seven years.
In addition, to these overnight visitors in hotels and service apartments, it is estimated that a further 400,000 people travel to the City on any day to shop, be educated, conduct business with firms in the City or simply to be entertained. This is additional to the 350,000 daily workforce in the City."