Leading demographer Bernard Salt has labelled the Gold Coast a “mini-Adelaide”, saying a national report has provided proof that the city was growing up.
The State of Australian Cities 2013 report came out yesterday showing a 10 per cent jump in the population numbers for the Gold Coast-Tweed area, while household income climbed 10.7 per cent from 2006 to 2011.
Household income hit $1125 a week here, but was still below the national median income of $1243.
Mr Salt said the figures backed up his view that the Coast was becoming a bigger and more sophisticated city.
“As the Gold Coast gets bigger, it is normalising,” he said.
“There are less retirees and it is no longer `God’s waiting room’.
“It is pushing 600,000 people and is half the size of Adelaide.
“A city of that size loses its rough edges.
“You could say that the Gold Coast is boring up.”
The report showed that the city’s population was boosted both by people moving here and existing residents, since the birth rate was almost double the death rate.
From 2010 to 2011, 7360 babies were born here, while 3894 Gold Coasters died.
In comparison, 2347 more people moved to the Gold Coast-Tweed region from other parts of Australia than the number who left the city to live somewhere else in the same period.
The State of Australian Cities report also went into detail about employment on the Coast — showing that the number of males and females was up in the 12-month period, sitting at 77.7 per cent and 50.1 per cent respectively.
Despite the increase, the city was still slightly below the national average in both areas.
Most men were employed in construction (19.4 per cent) and manufacturing (10.8 per cent), while retail (10.2 per cent) came in third (10.2 per cent) in the list of largest employers in the city.
Boss of Gold Coast luxury boat builder Riviera, Wes Moxey, said yesterday that manufacturing continued to be one of the city’s largest industries — despite tough market conditions.
“It has been really challenging thanks to the high Aussie dollar and the overall slump in demand,” he said.
“There has also been a real lack of support from the Federal Government and overall confidence.”
Mr Moxey said manufacturing jobs could be set to increase further on the Gold Coast as companies like Riviera positioned themselves for the next boom.
Original article published www.goldcoast.com.au by Lucy Ardern 1/8/2013