Proportion of people living in apartments and townhouses rises: ABS 2011 census

Larry SchlesingerDecember 8, 2020

The proportion of people living in detached houses has fallen by one percentage point between 2006 and 2011, with a shift towards more people living in units and townhouses, according to census data released today by the ABS. 

In total there are now 9,117,033 million private dwellings in Australia up from 8,426,559 private dwellings counted in the 2006 census. 

Of these private dwellings, 75.6% are separate houses, compared with 76.6% in the 2006 census, with proportional increases in the number of people living in a flat, unit or apartment and those living in a semi-detached, terraced house or townhouse. 

Dwelling structure

Australia

%

2006

%

Separate house

5,864,573

75.6

5,472,527

76.6

Semi-detached, row or terrace house, townhouse etc

765,978

9.9

658,858

9.2

Flat, unit or apartment

1,056,236

13.6

932,862

13.1

Other dwelling

66,666

0.9

76,080

1.1

Larry Schlesinger

Larry Schlesinger was a property writer at Property Observer

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