Area Differences
Life opportunities are shaped not only by an individual and their family but where they live. This "neighbourhood effect" is believed to be important particularly during early childhood and late adolescence. While, on the whole, Sydney offers a high standard of living, and most residents enjoy health, housing, work and leisure opportunities and safety levels which are high by international standards, this is not true for some geographical areas. In some parts of Sydney, many families and individuals experience multiple layers of disadvantage including low incomes or unemployment, inadequate education, poor health, substance abuse and inadequate housing, and this disadvantage carries over through generations.
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- Highly disadvantaged and recent arrivals
- Highly disadvantaged and vulnerable
- Highly disadvantaged
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Highly disadvantaged - based on endorsed methodology for identifying locations of entrenched disadvantage
Recent arrivals - more than 50 recent arrivals who spoke little or no English across the three year period from 2004-2006
Vulnerable - identified as vulnerable to worsening socio-economic conditions based on a 12-item index of stressors and assets
Disadvantage and social exclusion tend to be concentrated in the south-west and greater western areas. A 2007 study showed that 1.7% of the postcode areas in NSW account for 12.5% of the most disadvantaged people: an over-representation of more than seven-fold. In a 2007 analysis there were 36 localities in NSW which appeared six or more times among the 40 most disadvantaged suburbs on a range of indicators such as early school leaving, low family income, limited internet access, crime and imprisonment. Recent Federal Government analysis has identified 48 suburbs of highly concentrated socio-economic disadvantage in Sydney.