Cooloongup

Schools in Cooloongup iICSEA: school advantage index. 1000 = national avg, higher = more advantaged

Demographics

The median age of 42 is 2.0 years above the national figure, and the trajectory is aging: the senior share rose 5.5 points over the decade while the young share fell 2.0 points. Overseas-born residents reach 31.8%, which is 10.2 points above national, yet ancestry leans heavily Anglo-Celtic, led by English (2,999), Scottish (692) and Irish (544). University qualifications at 11.5% run 18.6 points below national, consistent with a workforce concentrated in trades and service roles. Average household size is 2.4, just 0.1 below national. Family structure splits between couples with children (1,581) and couples with no children (1,422), the latter making up 29.0% of families, which fits the older and family-oriented profile.

Tenure tilts toward buyers: 39.9% carry a mortgage, 31.7% own outright and 28.3% rent. Mortgage holders outnumbering outright owners points to a churn of working families purchasing in rather than long-held wealth. The stock is 91.6% separate houses and just 0.7% apartments, with 7.7% semi-detached, an almost fully detached profile that keeps the suburb family-focused. Three-bedroom dwellings account for 49.9% and four-plus bedroom homes 44.1%, so larger homes dominate. The $358,000 median house price is low relative to the national market, and against household income in the 25.5th percentile it still leaves a mortgage-to-income ratio of 25.1% and rent-to-income of 24.9%, both below the 30% stress line, a rare affordability combination.

Community Profile

Economy & Employment

The local workforce concentrates in service and trade sectors: Healthcare leads at 17.9% (266 workers), Education follows at 10.4% (155) and Construction at 10.0% (149), with Public Admin at 8.9% and Manufacturing at 7.6%. By occupation, Community and Personal Service workers (406) and Labourers (402) top the list, ahead of Machinery operators and drivers (335), which aligns with the decile 1 IEO score for education and occupation. Unemployment is high at 11.2%, well above typical metro rates, and the participation rate of 49.4% is low, partly because 2,148 residents sit outside the labour force on the aging profile. Real incomes fell 2.5% over the decade, a headwind that helps explain why the suburb scores decile 1 on IRSAD overall advantage.

Transport to Work

Car dependence is high: 83.8% of residents drive to work, well above the national average, while only 6.3% take public transport and 2.4% walk or cycle, reflecting a low-density layout at 563 residents per km2 across 11.89 km2. The suburb scores decile 1 on IRSAD and decile 2 on IRSD, the most disadvantaged tiers, and 9.8% of residents (611 people) need daily assistance, above what a younger area would show, consistent with the median age of 42. Volunteering runs at 10.5%. No schools are recorded inside the boundary in this dataset, so families rely on institutions in neighbouring Rockingham suburbs, a practical trade-off offset by the low $358,000 median house price.

Population Forecast

Cooloongup is effectively flat to shrinking: annual population change registers -0.07% and the 10-year change is -1.5%, classifying it as an established, slow-growth suburb. Medium forecasts hold the population near 8,890 through 2031, a slight decline from recent years. Overseas migration of 67 residents a year is the only meaningful positive driver, ahead of net internal migration of 10, so any growth depends on arrivals rather than natural increase. The gentrification stage reads not gentrifying with a score of 0, which fits a suburb at decile 1 advantage with little upward pressure. Affordability improved from 53.3% in 2011 to 50.3% in 2021, though it remains high relative to incomes in the 25.5th percentile.

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

How Cooloongup compares to ~15,000 Australian suburbs

Frequently Asked Questions