Analysis of the Changing Resident Demographic Profile of Australia's Mining Communities

The Australian mining and resources sector has experienced unprecedented growth over the last decade. While the sector has seen a recent slowdown in growth, the long-term demand for Australian mineral resources will continue.There are mining projects in every state of Australia and a variety of minerals and resources are extracted from sites across the continent. The nine Mining Regions sampled in this Report cover a large geographic area of Australia and stretch from the remote interior communities. The nine regions considered in this Report contain approximately half a million permanent residents which translates to less than 2.5% of the total population of Australia. This Report on the demographic profile of the resident population (excluding non-resident workers) in nine selected Mining Regions shows that, on the whole, mining resident populations are growing and diversifying. It also shows that the residential communities already ensconced in remote regions are generally reflective of a broader average non-metropolitan demographic profile. There are families and there are workers living in these communities.