Latrobe

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

Demographics

The median age of 43 is 3.0 years above national and the trajectory is aging: the senior share rose 6.5 points while the working-age share fell 3.4 points and the young share dropped 3.3 points over the decade. The population is heavily Anglo, with English ancestry recorded 2,223 times ahead of Irish at 508 and Scottish at 410, and only 9.9% of residents were born overseas, which is 11.7 points below the national figure. University qualifications reach 18.3%, 11.8 points below national, consistent with a workforce led by labourers and community roles rather than professional sectors. Average household size is 2.3, just 0.2 below national, and couples without children account for 33.7% of the 3,817 families, reflecting the older age profile.

Tenure splits fairly evenly: 36.7% own outright, 35.0% carry a mortgage and 28.3% rent. Outright owners outnumbering mortgage holders points to long-held, debt-free ownership rather than rapid churn. The stock is overwhelmingly detached at 93.4% separate houses, with apartments at just 0.1% and semi-detached dwellings at 5.9%, so families buy houses rather than units. Three-bedroom homes make up 52.8% and four-plus-bedroom homes 19.2%, matching the family profile. The median house price rose from $581,000 in 2024 to $645,000 in 2026, and over the full record prices climbed 701.2% from $80,500 in 1996. Both ratios stay manageable, with mortgage-to-income at 25.6% and rent-to-income at 21.3%, each below the 30% stress line.

Community Profile

Economy & Employment

The local workforce concentrates in Healthcare, which leads at 22.5% of jobs (301 workers), followed by Construction at 11.4% (153) and Education at 10.1% (136), with Manufacturing at 7.9% and Retail at 7.5%. By occupation, labourers (317) and community and personal service workers (312) outnumber professionals (266) and managers (247), a blue-collar mix that explains the decile 1 SEIFA education and occupation score and the decile 2 overall advantage ranking. Unemployment sits at 5.9% and the full-time employment rate is 62.4%, but participation reads only 51.3% because the aging profile leaves 1,665 residents not in the labour force. Real incomes still grew 13.8% over the decade, easing pressure even at a 23.3rd-percentile household income.

Transport to Work

The town is built around the car: 90.2% of commuters drive, while only 0.9% use public transport and 3.6% walk or cycle, expected given the 63.96 km2 footprint at just 78.6 residents per km2. Volunteering runs at 15.2% and 10.1% of residents, 484 people, need daily assistance, consistent with the older median age of 43. The SEIFA scores frame the social context: decile 2 on both relative advantage and disadvantage place Latrobe well below the national midpoint, though housing pressure stays low with rent-to-income at 21.3% and mortgage-to-income at 25.6%. No schools are recorded inside the suburb boundary in this dataset, so families rely on institutions in nearby Devonport and surrounding towns.

Population Forecast

Latrobe is growing faster than its size suggests, with the population up 27.5% over ten years and a forecast of 1.81% annually, about 105 residents a year. Medium projections lift the population from 5,905 in 2026 to 6,431 by 2031. Internal migration is the main driver at a net 74 people a year, well above the 18 from overseas migration, which is typical of an affordable regional town drawing mainland and intrastate movers. The gentrification score of 35 signals early-stage change rather than a finished transition, supported by a 38.9% rise in rents. Affordability has held steady, easing only slightly from 39.7% in 2011 to 39.4% in 2021, so growth has not yet priced out local buyers.

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

How Latrobe compares to ~15,000 Australian suburbs

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