Research and statistics
Like all councils, the City of Sydney records local demographics and researches how the area will grow and change in future. Using Bureau of Statistics data (collected at each Census), we create a community profile which covers the residents of the City, in each suburb and as a whole.
We also compile data about business in the City – looking at the floor space in use and the number of people employed. Other data sets look at tourist accommodation and commercial development.
Our research and statistics are used by our own staff and Council as well as community groups, investors, businesses, students and the general public.
We’ve put together the picture of Sydney’s growth below to help explain our green, global and connected goals.
Sydney in 2030 and beyond
Sydney is Australia’s world city. It is the country’s premier international tourist attraction and it produces around a quarter of the nation’s GDP (gross domestic product).
By 2036, jobs in Sydney are expected to increase by 31%. Visitors to the city are also going to increase. And the number of people moving to inner-Sydney is growing too. Fast!
The City of Sydney has even started to come in at the top of population growth lists, ahead of all other council areas in NSW.
We’re expecting the population to hit 187,000 when the data from the 2011 Census is released. Looking ahead, Sydney’s residential population will have grown to approximately 243,000 by 2030.
As the number of people who live and work in the city or come to visit grows, so it follows that the transport system and other forms of infrastructure must grow too.
While public transport use, walking and cycling are growing as preferred options for moving around town, the capacity for accommodating the trend is a problem. For instance, while the NSW Government adds more buses to the network every week, it has no plans as to what happens when they get to the City Centre – which is one big bottleneck.
Train passengers face similar woes. Trains are slower now than they were a decade ago and will get even slower as overcrowding continues.
Even pedestrian travel is worsening! There are 1 million walking trips daily in the City Centre and pedestrians are crowded onto narrow footpaths, particularly in George Street.
This is why we are sometimes obsessed by transport. And why, in context, so much of Sydney 2030 is about the need for us to live, work and play differently to make our city sustainable.
For example, if people don’t rush home after work but instead stay to enjoy the City @ night, more can be done with the existing transport network, rather than endlessly trying to grow it.
If we can support those who opt to go walking and cycling, we will, at the same time, be helping those who must use public transport and the roads.
And if we can connect the new jobs in the City with residential growth in our villages, we can make room for high quality, high frequency, public transport from Greater Sydney.
