Community profile and forecasts

Age profile

Relative to Greater Melbourne, Boroondara is home to a lower proportion of young children and people in their 30s. These two age groups often coincide as young families. Boroondara is home to a higher proportion of teenagers and people aged over 50.

This chart shows that the largest age groups in Boroondara are 10 to 19 years, 20 to 29 years and 59 to 39 years (13.9% of the population each). By contrast, the largest age groups for Greater Melbourne are 30 to 39 years (16.3% of the population), followed by 20 to 29 (14.5%) and 40 to 49 (13.4%).

Figure 1: Relative to Greater Melbourne, Boroondara had a higher proportion of teenagers and people over 50 at the 2021 Census (data source: Informed Decisions City of Boroondara community profile)

Median age

The median age of Boroondara residents varies across the municipality. This variation reflects the varying cohorts attracted by the services and housing stock available within each locality.

For example, in the southwest of the municipality, much of Hawthorn and Hawthorn East have a low median age. These areas are attractive to young adults who want to be near to Swinburne University and these people are catered to with higher density housing options.

This map shows that most neighbourhoods have a median age of 36 to 45. Four neighbourhoods have a median age of 61 to 75 years while 51 neighbourhoods, mainly in Hawthorn and Hawthorn East, have a median age between 21 and 35.

Map 1: The median age of residents varies across Boroondara (data source: Informed Decisions City of Boroondara social atlas)

Household type

The most common household type in Boroondara and across Greater Melbourne is that of a couple with one or more children, followed by lone person households and then couples without children. The remainder are one-parent families and other household types.

Figure 2: At the 2021 Census, around one in 3 Boroondara households was a couple with a child or children (data source: Informed Decisions City of Boroondara community profile)

Forecast

Boroondara is forecast to grow by 1% per year between 2023 and 2033, when the population is forecast to reach 194,742.

More information

See how Boroondara is growing and changing by visiting the following pages on the Informed Decisions website:

Our community profile uses census data to show changes in the community's characteristics
Our social atlas shows how population groups are distributed across Boroondara
Our population forecast shows how the Boroondara population, age structure and households are likely to change between now and 2041.