Analysis of socio-economic advantage and disadvantage in Australia's large non-metropolitan regions

Abstract

Australia's large regional cities and towns display wide variation in how they are adjusting to the socio-economic transitions that have occurred over the past decade. In terms of socio-economic advantage and disadvantage these changes, which are often associated with globalization, wider economic and technological restructuring, changing demographics of the population and shifts in public policy are not evenly dispersed across non-metropolitan regions, result in a range of often contrasting outcomes. Such outcomes have been discussed across a variety of academic disciplines using a variety of data and methods, and the research undertaken provides a useful grounding for contemporary studies both theoretically and methodologically. Interest in such studies has also been high among policy makers and the general public and ongoing analysis of new data provides an opportunity to further extend and update our understanding. The current paper represents an analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics 2001 Census data aimed at analysing non-metropolitan regions based on their performance across a range of selected socio-economic variables. Using model based clustering methods this paper places non-metropolitan regions into clusters depending on the degree to which they share similar socio-economic and demographic outcomes. These clusters form the basis of a typology representing the range of socio-economic and demographic outcomes at the regional level. This typology offers a useful framework with which to consider the performance of regions along a range of ideal types.