The Redfern–Waterloo area has a population
of 19,194 persons. Redfern and Waterloo are the
most densely populated with a population of 11,202 and 5,202 respectively,
followed by Darlington and Eveleigh. The 2001
Census estimates that there are approximately 759 Aboriginal people living in
the area, representing 3.9 percent of the total population. Key socio-economic
characteristics of the Redfern and Waterloo
population are summarised below based on 2001 Australian Bureau of Statistics
census data.
Population
• Waterloo
has an older age profile than Redfern and Sydney generally. The median age for Waterloo is 45 years, while for Redfern the median age is
35, which reflects Sydney’s
median age of 34. Within Waterloo
37 percent of residents are aged 55 and over.
• Waterloo
has a very high proportion of single parent families, comprising 46 percent of
all families, compared to Redfern (19 percent) and Sydney (15 percent).
• Redfern and Waterloo have smaller
households than Sydney
generally. People living alone appear at twice the rate in Redfern and three
times the rate in Waterloo than for the Sydney region.
• Redfern and Waterloo have markedly
higher proportions of overseas born residents than Sydney as a whole. Within Redfern 37 percent
of the population are overseas born while in Waterloo the figure is 43 percent.
Employment
• Waterloo
has a very high proportion of people over 15 years of age not in the labour
force (59 percent) and persons employed at less than half the rate of Redfern
and Sydney as a whole. In Redfern, the proportion of people not in the labour
force (30 percent) is similar to Sydney.
Unemployment in Redfern and Waterloo (7.6
percent in Redfern and 16.6 percent in Waterloo)
was higher than the state average (7.2 percent).
Income
• Within Waterloo
the majority of households (56 percent) have a weekly income of less than $400,
of these 25 percent have an income of less than $200 per week. The income
levels for Redfern reflect the gentrification process with concentrations of
high and low income households. Within Redfern 28.9 percent of households have
a weekly income of less than $400 and 39.2 percent of households earn $1000 or
more.
Housing Tenure
• Rental accommodation is the dominate tenure type for Redfern (55
percent) and Waterloo (79.6 percent), in comparison to Sydney as a whole where
29 percent of dwellings are rented and 62.7 percent of dwellings are either
owned or purchased.
• Within Waterloo,
92 percent of all housing is public housing, while in Redfern there is
considerably less public housing at 29 percent.
Housing Type
• Redfern and Waterloo have very low
proportions of free-standing dwellings compared to Sydney as a whole. Redfern has more semi-detached
dwellings (31.8 percent) than Waterloo
which has predominantly flats and units (75.2 percent).