The City of Whittlesea is one of the largest municipalities in metropolitan Melbourne, covering an area of approximately 489 km2.
About 70% of the City is rural with the other 30% urban, comprising houses, shops and factories.
We are one of the fastest growing municipalities in Australia. In the 2016/17 financial year, the City of Whittlesea was the fourth largest growing local government area in Victoria.
We currently welcome around 8,000 new residents each year (about 156 a week). On average there are 76 babies born every week in the City of Whittlesea.
Our current population is approximately 245,029. This is expected to grow to 382,896 by 2041.
Between 2018 and 2038, our three fastest growing precincts are forecast to be:
- Donnybrook with an additional 49,712 people
- Wollert with an additional 31,005 people
- Epping North with an additional 24,198 people.
Our growth is not only in our newer suburbs. There is also strong growth and redevelopment set to take place in our established areas, such as Epping, Thomastown and Lalor.
See more demographic detail in our Place Profiles report.
Age profile
Our community is slightly younger than average, with a median age of 34 years, compared to 36 across the greater Melbourne area.
By 2038, our city will have approximately 37,000 more children aged under 17 years than in 2018 and almost 19,000 more residents aged over 70 years.
Multiculturalism
We are one of the most multicultural municipalities in Victoria. In 2016, almost half of all local residents (over 86,000 residents) spoke a language other than English at home.
In previous decades, a higher proportion of our overseas-born residents were of European heritage, particularly Italy, Republic of North Macedonia and Greece.
Between 2011-2016, emerging communities in the City of Whittlesea included residents born in India (+5,866 persons), China (+1,780), Iran (+1,300) and Sri Lanka (+1,211).
In 2021, our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population was 2,270 people, the second largest in metropolitan Melbourne.
Households
In 2018, the 77,000th home was built in the City of Whittlesea. This figure is expected to almost double by 2038 to about 127,000 dwellings. Currently:
- 86% of homes are separate dwellings, compared with 73% across Victoria
- the average household size in the City of Whittlesea is 2.9 people, higher than that the Victorian average of 2.5
- about 53% of households consist of couples with children, higher than that the statewide average of 38%.
By 2038, the number of family households will increase by over 26,000 (+61%).
Further information
See more socio-demographic information about our community
In 2010 the Victorian Government introduced the Urban Growth Zone. This increased land for 90,000 new residential blocks within Melbourne’s seven growth areas, which includes the City of Whittlesea.
New and emerging growth areas will have the most rapid population growth. Our highest population growth over the next 20 years will be in Epping North, Wollert and Donnybrook.
The established areas will continue to grow, especially Mernda, Doreen, Epping Central (Epping), Plenty Valley Town Centre (South Morang), Thomastown, Lalor and University Hill (Bundoora).
In 2018, there were more than 69,000 jobs within the City of Whittlesea. In 2017, there were about 13,645 local businesses.
Approximately 88,500 people who live here are employed. Of our employed residents:
- 65% work outside of the municipality, many in the areas of Darebin, Hume and inner Melbourne
- 62% work full time and 36% work part time.
The three main industry sector employers in the municipality are:
- health care and social assistance (13%)
- retail trade (12%)
- construction (10%).
Residents of the municipality rely more heavily on driving a car to their place of work than residents in many other parts of Melbourne, with more than 57,600 residents (65%) travelling outside of the City of Whittlesea for work.
15% of residents have a daily combined work travel time of more than 90 minutes.
The train is the most popular form of public transport for commuters. Train use is increasing thanks to the recent line extension to include Middle Gorge, Hawkstowe and Mernda Stations.