Boulder

Schools in Boulder

Open-register school locations for education access. This is not a school-quality ranking.

Demographics

Boulder has a working-age, Anglo-leaning profile, but its age structure is moving older. Median age is 35, five years below the national figure, while university attainment is 9.9%, 20.2 percentage points below the national rate. English ancestry counts 1,631 people, followed by Scottish at 411 and Irish at 410; no religion is recorded for 2,270 residents, ahead of Christianity at 1,605. Average household size is 2.4, 0.1 below national, and overseas-born residents account for 21.8%, only 0.2 points above national. Compared with nearby Kalgoorlie, Boulder shares a regional workforce culture, while its low university share helps explain the prominence of trades and machinery roles.

Detached housing dominates Boulder: 81.9% of dwellings are separate houses and 15.8% are semi-detached, while 51.9% have 3 bedrooms and 30.1% have 4 or more. Tenure is split between mortgages at 42.2%, renting at 35.1% and outright ownership at 21.2%, so the suburb has a substantial mortgage-belt base but also a sizable tenant market. Housing stress is not flagged, with mortgage costs at 15.3% of income and rent at 15.2%. Compared with apartment-heavy locations, Boulder is better aligned with family-sized detached living; however, its 15.3% vacancy rate points to softer occupancy pressure than a tightly held market.

Community Profile

Economy & Employment

Mining is the economic anchor, employing 356 people or 30.8% of industry workers, well ahead of healthcare at 107 and construction at 92. The occupation mix reinforces that pattern: trades account for 536 people and machinery or driving roles for 478, above clerical or administration at 237. Employment is relatively active, with a 62.4% participation rate, 69.4% full-time rate and 4.6% unemployment. Socio-economic measures are uneven: education and occupation rank in decile 1, income in decile 4, while disadvantage is decile 2 for both IRSD and IRSAD. Compared with higher-education service economies, Boulder is more exposed to resource and hands-on work, which helps explain the gap between a 73.9th-percentile household income and low education-related rankings.

Source: ABS Census 2021

Full-time and part-time are shares of the employed. Source: ABS Census 2021

Transport to Work

Daily life is strongly car dependent: 81.9% travel as car drivers, compared with 2.8% using public transport, 2.8% walking or cycling and 2.5% working from home. That pattern makes private vehicle access important for work and services. Four nearby school options span government primary, distance education and education support, plus one non-government school; families should check enrolment zones against the exact address. Boulder has 4,872 residents across 4.4 square kilometres, supporting a compact urban feel, but its IRSAD decile of 2 is below the national midpoint and points to limited socio-economic advantage. A suburb-level crime rate is not available, so assess specific streets and recent local police information rather than assuming the decile predicts safety.

Population Forecast

Boulder is an established, slow-growth suburb. The annual growth trend is just 0.05%, below the pace of expanding outer-suburban corridors, while migration is labelled Balanced rather than driven by a strong single source. Population change across the wider area is 3.6% over 10 years. Its trajectory is Aging: the senior share rose 5.9 percentage points, the young share fell 4.1 points and the working share fell 2.9 points. Rent growth of 13.6% may support investor interest, but a gentrification score of 0 and stage Not gentrifying point to limited upgrade-led change. Compared with faster-growing regional centres, demand is more likely to be steady than transformational.

National Ranking iPercentile rank among ~15,000 AU suburbs. 90% = higher than 90% of suburbs

How Boulder compares to ~15,000 Australian suburbs

Frequently Asked Questions