Microburbs
Live sandbox. Send any request below against one sample suburb and property — no signup needed. For full coverage, create an API key.
Classic docs
Microburbs Property Data API
Suburb - Demographics

Underclass drag

GET/v1/suburbs/{suburb_name}/demographics/underclass-drag10¢ per call

Welfare-dependency and public-housing shares with the suburb's underclass tier (High / Mid / Low) and the capital-growth impact associated with that tier. Regional and neighbour ranks for the same two metrics are served by /demographics/cohorts.

Exact suburb identifier required. Exact ABS Suburb and Locality (SAL) name, e.g. Burwood (NSW) — many suburbs carry a state suffix. If starting from free text or an unverified bare name, first call GET /v1/geocode/suburb?q=<text>, then use the exact data[].area_name it returns. Suburb data endpoints do not guess a state or typo-correct names.

Price: 10¢ per call.

Authorization

Request

The only values you send. Fields under Responses below are what comes back — you never pass those.

Path parameters

suburb_namestringrequired

Exact ABS Suburb and Locality (SAL) name, e.g. `Burwood (NSW)` — many suburbs carry a state suffix. If starting from free text or an unverified bare name, first call `GET /v1/geocode/suburb?q=<text>`, then use the exact `data[].area_name` it returns. Suburb data endpoints do not guess a state or typo-correct names.

Query parameters

None — this endpoint accepts no query parameters. Call the path above with your bearer token and nothing else.

Responses

Successful Response

application/json
UnderclassDragfields returned to you
suburbstringalways returned

Canonical SAL name.

welfare_dependency_pctnumberalways returned

Share of working-age residents on JobSeeker / Disability Support / carer payments, as a percentage.

public_housing_pctnumbermay be null

Public-housing share of dwellings, as a percentage.

public_housing_basisstringmay be null

Which denominator produced public_housing_pct — 'microburb_downscale' (mesh-block tenure base, preferred) or 'census_suburb' (suburb census population share).

tierstringalways returned

Underclass concentration tier. High = welfare >= 20% or public housing >= 15%; Low = welfare < 10% and public housing < 2%.

growth_impactobjectalways returned

What a suburb's score on this indicator has historically gone together with, in capital-growth terms. ⚠️ **This is an association, not a prediction, and not a calculation from this suburb's own numbers.** The suburb is sorted into one of a few bands, and each band carries a fixed figure drawn from Microburbs' research across many suburbs. Two suburbs in the same band always return exactly the same `pct_per_year`. Do not add these up across indicators to build a growth forecast, and do not present the figure as something this suburb will do.

n_microburbsintegermay be null

Mesh blocks behind the public-housing rollup.

GET/v1/suburbs/{suburb_name}/demographics/underclass-drag
cURL
curl --request GET \
  --url 'https://api.microburbs.com.au/v1/suburbs/Belmont%20North/demographics/underclass-drag' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer test'
Example Responses
{
  "data": {
    "growth_impact": {
      "band": "Middle 90%",
      "pct_per_year": 0
    },
    "n_microburbs": 77,
    "public_housing_basis": "microburb_downscale",
    "public_housing_pct": 6.6,
    "suburb": "Belmont North",
    "tier": "Mid",
    "welfare_dependency_pct": 16.2
  }
}
Successful Response200
application/json