The Census data released today suggests that Australians are getting older. The opposite applies to North Arm Cove residents. We are (apparently) getting younger!
Median age of Cove residents has dropped to 59 in 2016 from 60 back in 2011. (It must be you getting younger because it is certainly not me.)
Some comparisons: 2016 2011
Aged 19 and under 73 66
Aged over 70 103 94
Males 223 224
Females 218 198
Vehicles per house 1.8 1.6
If these figures are correct we have only had a quite small growth over the previous 5 years and that growth has been in the number of female residents. But we have acquired more cars!
There were just 9 more dwellings in the village in 2016 bringing the total to 317. But of those, 126 were unoccupied - up three from 2011. This suggests one factor which could cause an underestimate of the true population of our village. The Census is undertaken in winter. The residents of some of those unoccupied houses may have headed away from the Cove for the winter. Some local houses are primarily occupied in holiday times or weekends.
Compared to the rest of NSW we are more likely to have been born in Australia (76% vs 65%) and for our father (69% vs 50%) and mother (68% vs 51%) to have been born in Australia. Just over 1 in 14 of us are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. This is more than two and a half times the national proportion.
Our extent of internet use (82%) is almost exactly the same as the NSW and Australian averages.
And 87 locals reported undertaking volunteer work during the previous 12 months putting us several percentage points above the national average for this community service.
