Babyboomers have less wealth than other households

Australia’s top sea-change locations reveal baby boomers are not cashed up at all, with the typical household having 22% less money every week than the national average.

A 2006 Census analysis of areas such as Victoria’s Surf Coast, Byron Bay in NSW, Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and Mandurah in Western Australia also found it is not baby boomers filling the streets of Noosa and Lorne, but a generally older generation.

Not all coastal areas even recorded major population increases: Areas such as Mandurah (up 23.4%), the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia (up 16.82%) and the Surf Coast (up 11.6%) all registered strong growth since the 2001 census.

But the NSW coastal towns of Coffs Harbour (3.83%) and Port Macquarie (3.96%) grew slower than the national rate, while the Byron Bay region actually had about 4,000 fewer residents than five years earlier.

The census shows the proportion of people in the baby boomer bracket of 55 to 64 years old sits at about 13% in eight of the top sea-change locations around Australia, punching slightly above their national representation of 11%. But it is the over 65s who have flocked to these beaches. They make up an average of 19% of the population in sea-change locations.

“It is by no means a clear and simple picture that emerges about coastal growth,” National Seachange Taskforce, executive director, Alan Stokes says.