About our Area

[Geography] [Population] [Growth] [Age of the population] [Growth in aged population] [The Aboriginal population] [Cultural diversity] [Socio-economic status]

Geography
North Coast Area Health Service (NCAHS) covers an area of 25,570 square kilometres extending from Port Macquarie in the south, Queensland in the north and westward to the Great Dividing Range.

NCAHS shares a state border with Queensland. Residents of the southern Gold Coast and Tweed Valley share primary, secondary and tertiary health services provided by both Queensland and NSW Health Services.

The western and southern borders of NCAHS join the Hunter/New England Area Health Service, where there are some natural flows across these borders.

Settlement patterns of residents in the NCAHS show higher concentrations on the coastal strip, with large coastal settlements at Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Ballina and Tweed Heads. Inland there is a high concentration of people in the city of Lismore. The remaining population is scattered over larger areas, making delivery of health services to isolated areas more difficult.

Population
NCAHS includes 12 Local Government Areas (LGAs), with an estimated population in 2006 of 480,675 (Source: Transport and Population Data Centre, Department of Planning v0.1, 2005 release).

Several southern Gold Coast Statistical Local Areas (SLAs) access services in the Tweed Valley thus increasing the catchments� population by 52,728. Therefore, the estimated population accessing public services of the NCAHS can be as large as 533,403.

Growth
NCAHS has the fastest growing population of any Area Health Service in NSW. The population of the NCAHS is projected to increase to 509,573 by 2011. This projected annualised growth rate of 1.2% is higher than the State-wide projection of 0.9%. The LGAs with the highest projected annualised growth are Tweed (1.8%), Hastings (1.7%) Coffs Harbour (1.7%) Byron (1.4%) and Ballina (1.4%) (Source: Transport and Population Data Centre, Department of Planning v0.1, 2005 release).

High growth is also expected in the southern Gold Coast region thus increasing the catchments� population for the Tweed Valley even further.

Age of the population
The proportion of the population aged 0 to 14 years in NCAHS is 19%, the same as the NSW average. NCAHS has a slightly lower proportion of people aged 15-24 years (12%) compared to NSW (14%) and aged 25-64 years (51% in NCAHS compares to 54% in NSW). NCAHS has the highest proportion of people aged 65 years and over at 19% of the population compared to the NSW average of 13%. (Source: Transport and Population Data Centre, Department of Planning v0.1, 2005 release).

Growth in aged population
By 2011, it is predicted that the proportion of people in NCAHS aged 65 years and over will have increased from 19% to 21% of the total population. This age group will grow at a higher rate than the State-wide aged population, which is expected to grow from 13% to 15% of the total population over the same period.

The Aboriginal population
In the 2001 census, 14,753 residents of NCAHS identified themselves as Aboriginal, representing 3.4% of the Area�s total population. This represents a significantly higher proportion of Aboriginal residents than NSW as a whole (2%). The LGAs with the highest numbers of Aboriginal people are Kempsey (2,285), where Aboriginal people make up 9.6% of the population, Tweed (1,861), Coffs Harbour (1,809) and Lismore (1,379). (Source: 2001 Census, Usual Residents Profile).

Cultural diversity
The North Coast has a much less culturally diverse population than the rest of NSW. In 2006, 10.5% of the NCA population was born overseas (48,010 residents), this proportion is less than half of the NSW average (23.8%). The highest proportions of overseas-born residents was in the three major coastal local government areas of Byron (16.2%), Tweed (14.3%) and Coffs Harbour (11.6%). While the Richmond Valley (5%), Clarence Valley (6.8%) and Kempsey (6.9%) local government areas has the lowest proportions of overseas-born residents.

A total of 910 overseas-born NCA residents (1.9% of all overseas-born residents) reported that they did not speak English well, or did not speak English at all. English language fluency of overseas-born residents varied among local government from 0.8% to 3.4%. Rates of limited English language fluency were highest in the Coffs Harbour (3.4%), Lismore (3.4%) and Richmond Valley (2.9%) local government areas. The local government areas with the lowest rates were Bellingen , Kyogle and Kempsey, all reporting 0.8% of limited English language fluency in their overseas-born residents. (Source: ABS 2006 Census)

Socio-economic status
The North Coast is lower than the NSW average on most measures of socio-economic status.

Of the eight Area Health Services in NSW, the North Coast has:

The highest proportion of low income (<$350/week) households (19.6% compared to NSW average 14.9%).
The lowest proportion of high income (> $1,500/week) households (7.4% compared with NSW average 21.2%).
Highest proportion of the population on disability/sickness benefit (12.5% compared with NSW average 7.7%).
Highest proportion of the workforce on unemployment benefits (8.3% compared with NSW average 4.4%).
Highest level of one-parent families (18.5% compared with NSW average 16.1%).
The highest proportion of families with dependent children receiving parenting payments (46.8% compared with NSW average 30.3%).
The most disadvantaged health area scoring the lowest Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (957 compared with NSW average 1000) and the lowest score for the Index of Education & Occupation (943 compared with NSW average 1010). (Source: SEIFA, 2006)

Extracted from : North Coast Area Health Service 2006/2007 Annual Report. Lismore: North Coast Area Health Service. Section 1 � pp7-8. Available at: http://www.ncahs.nsw.gov.au/doclib/public/annual_reports/ncahs_07_annual_report.pdf . Accessed (July 2008).

Suggested citation of this publication:	Population Health, Planning and Performance Directorate, North Coast Area Health Profile. North Coast Area Health Service, Lismore. Available at: . Accessed (insert date of access).
Produced by:	Public Health Unit (Population Health, Planning and Performance Directorate), North Coast Area Health Service.