More Australians families are moving away from cities and into regional and coastal centres, according to a comprehensive study of the nation’s rural and regional communities.

The 2008 Country Matters: Social Atlas of Rural and Regional Australia was released today by Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Tony Burke, at the Primary Industries Ministerial Council meeting in Melbourne.

It is a comprehensive snapshot of social and economic trends in rural and regional centres of up to 100,000 people, released by the Bureau of Rural Sciences in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

The Atlas reveals that at the 2006 Census, more than 7.5 million Australians lived outside capital cities – an increase of 472,700 since 2001 – with the largest growth in coastal Queensland.

However, it confirms that people have been leaving smaller rural communities, especially young families.

The report also shows rural Australians are just as likely to have the internet at home, more likely to be employed and are older than their metropolitan counterparts.

Key findings of the 2008 snapshot include:

• rural Australians are overcoming the digital divide. All areas have experienced more than 25 per cent growth in the number of households connected to the internet since 2001, but the largest growth has occurred in rural areas (28.5 per cent)
• across Australia, the largest increase in the number of people who attained vocational qualifications including certificates or diplomas was in small towns (25.2 per cent) and regional centres (22.7 per cent). National growth was 18.2 per cent between 2001 and 2006
• people in country areas were more likely to take on voluntary work to support their communities. In 2006, more than a quarter of people in rural areas (27.9 per cent) and small towns (26.6 per cent) volunteered their time. This was considerably higher than the national average (19.8 per cent)
• the highest levels of workforce participation were in rural areas (67.5 per cent) and more rural people continued to work into older age than their urban counterparts, and
• home ownership rates were higher in rural areas than in major urban centres. More than three-quarters (76.2 per cent) of homes in rural areas and more than two-thirds (69.4 per cent) of homes in small towns were owned or being purchased. This was higher than the rate of home ownership in major urban centres (63.6 per cent).

“These figures reinforce what we already know about people living in the bush – they’re resilient, highly skilled and passionate about their communities,” Mr Burke said.

“The internet is critical to give people in regional areas direct access to information about the drought, weather patterns, climate change and of course for social networking as well.

“Lifelong education is also vital, and the Rudd Government will continue to invest in new opportunities for education and skills training for all sectors of the community.”

Some key state and territory findings include:

• rural Western Australia has the nation’s greatest gender imbalance, where there are 38.7 per cent more young men aged 15-24 years than women, and men outnumber women by two-to-one in some regions, including in Greenough, south of Geraldton
• Victoria continues to attract many immigrants, with a 30 per cent jump in new arrivals to the state’s regional centres, including in Cobram, in northern Victoria, where Iraqi refugees represent around 10 per cent of the population
• the highest level of household internet connections in regional centres was in the Northern Territory – at 63.4 per cent, marginally above the national average of 63 per cent
• the Snowy River region, in south-eastern NSW, had a high percentage of people with post-school qualifications at 67.5 per cent – much higher than the national average of 52.5 per cent 
• more than 40 per cent of people in Barcoo, Central Queensland, volunteer for their community
• volunteering rates in rural and regional areas were highest in South Australia, including in the Elliston, Cleve and Kimba regions on the Eyre Peninsula, where 45.6 per cent of people volunteer
• much of Tasmania has a high rate of retention of 16-year-olds in school, including Latrobe and George Town which have a 100 per cent retention rate, compared to the national average of 81.7 per cent.

The Atlas allows users to create a tailored report on-line, generating maps on population changes, employment and industry, income, access to services and other characteristics.

It is used widely by farmers, rural businesses, students and government departments who rely on detailed social and demographic information.

The Atlas draws on information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2006 Population Census.

To use the Atlas online visit www.brs.gov.au/socialatlas