2021 Progress in Australian Regions and Cities Dashboard

The interactive dashboard has been updated with the latest data on growth in our regions and cities.

The Bureau of Communications, Arts and Regional Research (BCARR) has released its annual update to the 2021 Progress in Australian Regions and Cities Dashboard.

The Dashboard helps answer the question of how our regions and cities are progressing by tracking trends over time. For the first time, the Dashboard has been updated to include a portal to highlight Australian cities.

It provides vital data for decision makers at the individual, community, government and industry levels. It tracks the performance of Australian regions and cities across seven themes:

  • The labour market
  • Infrastructure
  • Housing
  • Economic activity
  • The environment
  • Demography
  • Wellbeing

The Dashboard offers a range of interactive visualisations and search functions to help users explore information about regions or cities and to compare data across indicators. It will also be a key part of the upcoming Regional Data Hub.

Some of the key trends from 2021 are:

  • Australia's population grew on average by 1.6 per cent annually between 2010 and 2020. Major Cities had the largest average annual growth rate of 1.8 per cent, followed by Inner Regional Australia with 1.2 per cent and Outer Regional Australia with 0.5 per cent. However, Remote Australia and Very Remote Australia declined over the same period.
  • Major Cities had the longest commute times across Australia, averaging 34 minutes per commute in 2019. It is an approximately two-minute increase compared to the average commute time in 2010.
  • Total dwelling approvals declined by -1.2 per cent between 2016-17 and the preliminary data for 2020–21. The growth in Inner Regional (47.8 per cent), Outer Regional (43.8 per cent) and Remote Australia (37.7 per cent) was offset by the decline in Major Cities (-10.6 per cent) and Very Remote Australia (-19.4 per cent).

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