What we found
- Women leave home first. At 25, 32% of men live with their parents, against 23% of women.
- Most of us end up with a partner and kids. About 6 in 10 people in their early forties live with a partner and kids.
- Late in life the paths split. At 90, 39% of men still live with a partner, against 8% of women.
- Aged care comes after 85. About 1 in 4 people aged 90 live in aged care, most of them women.
Our research: What makes a suburb good for families
The story: who do Australians live with at each age?
Our first reel: the same people, each home its own colour.
At birth, 88% of babies live with two parents. By 16, about 1 in 4 live with one parent. Through their twenties most people leave the family home.
In the mid twenties, about 1 in 5 people live with people they are not related to, such as flatmates. By the early forties, about 6 in 10 live with a partner and kids. In the early seventies, 55% live with just their partner.
At 90, about 1 in 3 people live alone and about 1 in 4 live in aged care. These figures come from the 2021 Census, held on 10 August 2021, across all of Australia.
Do most people in Sydney live in a house or an apartment?
Most still live in a house. At the 2021 Census, held on 10 August 2021, 54% of homes in Greater Sydney were separate houses, 13% were townhouses, terraces or semis, and 33% were apartments. That is 1 in 3 Sydney homes.
It changes sharply from one suburb to the next. In Parramatta, in Sydney's west, 87% of homes are apartments. In Blacktown, further west, 65% are houses and 17% are apartments. In St Clair, near Penrith, 99% of homes are houses, while in Wentworth Point, on the Parramatta River, almost every home is an apartment.
The map at the end of the reel colours every street block in Sydney by its most common type of home, from the same 2021 Census count.
Do men or women leave home first?
Women leave home earlier. At 25, 32% of men still live with one or both parents, against 23% of women. At 30 it is 14% of men and 8% of women.
Women also move in with a partner sooner. At 25, 27% of women live with just a partner, against 19% of men. By 30 the two are level, at about 3 in 10 each.
Do more women live alone in old age?
Yes, and the gap grows with age. At 80, 36% of women live alone, against 18% of men. At 90, it is 41% of women and 25% of men.
Most older men still live with a partner. At 80, 61% of men live with just their partner, against 36% of women. At 90, it is 39% of men and only 8% of women.
Women also make up most of the oldest Australians. At 90, about 6 in 10 people are women. Of those living alone at 90, about 7 in 10 are women, and so are about 7 in 10 of those in aged care.
Who raises kids without a partner?
Mostly women. Of people living with their children and no partner, about 8 in 10 are women at almost every age from 20 to 90.
The Census counts who lives in the home on the night. It does not tell us why a parent has no partner at home, so we make no claim about that.
Which suburbs are youngest and oldest?
In Yarrabilba, a new estate south of Brisbane, 1 in 3 people are under 15. In Tea Gardens, on the NSW mid north coast, 6 in 10 people are 65 or over.
Each age in this page is a different group of people in 2021, not one group followed through life. People are counted where they were on Census night.
How we made this reel
- We counted every Australian on Census night. The 2021 Census counts who each person lives with, at every age.
- Each dot is 1 in 1,000 people that age. The dots move between homes month by month, from birth to 90.
- Men and women are counted apart. Men sit at the top of each house and women below.
What it means for you
- See who lives in a suburb before you buy. Every suburb report shows residents by age, women and men.
- Young and old suburbs are worlds apart. In Yarrabilba, south of Brisbane, 1 in 3 people are under 15.
- Some suburbs are mostly retirees. In Tea Gardens, on the NSW mid north coast, 6 in 10 are 65 or over.
Where to see it on Microburbs
- Demographics, in every suburb report. See residents by age, women and men, for the suburb you are looking at.
- Then switch suburbs to compare. In Bondi, Sydney, about 1 in 5 residents are 55 or over.
Get the data
The data behind this reel, for any suburb, is live in our API. In Bondi, Sydney, about 1 in 5 residents are 55 or over. Women make up 10.7 in every 100 residents in that age group and men 8.8, read on 10 November 2026.
Try it now, free. This request is free for our sample suburbs, one in each state and territory, with no sign up and no card:
curl "https://api.microburbs.com.au/v1/suburbs/Bondi/demographics/age" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer test"
What it sent back on 13 November 2026, cut to its first three entries of 36. The fields income_bracket and median_income came back empty in every entry, so they are left out here:
{
"data": [
{
"area_name": "Bondi",
"area_level": "suburb",
"proportion": 0.0272,
"age_bracket": "0-4",
"gender": "females"
},
{
"area_name": "Bondi",
"area_level": "suburb",
"proportion": 0.0281,
"age_bracket": "0-4",
"gender": "males"
},
{
"area_name": "Bondi",
"area_level": "suburb",
"proportion": 0.0555,
"age_bracket": "0-4",
"gender": "persons"
}
]
}
See the full API docs for every request, the price of each and how to get a key for the rest of Australia.
See who lives in your suburb
Every Microburbs suburb report shows residents by age, women and men, for the suburb you are looking at.
