Best cities for families in Australia
Do you want to know the best cities for families in Australia? Then you’ve come to the right place.
Homeday, a German online real estate platform, conducted a comprehensive study to determine the best cities around the world for families. Australia featured thrice, with three major cities.
Here’s how we’re going to break it down for you:
- Main categories: Detailing the factors the cities on the list were graded against.
- Australia’s best cities for families: Revealing the cities.
- Background: Brief background on how the study was conducted.
Main categories
Homeday chose to evaluate cities using five categories, each with its own set of determining factors:
1. City
- Housing: Affordability of housing according to salary and average house prices.
- Education system: The quality of education in the city, with a specific focus on mathematics, reading and science.
- Safety: The safety of cities were determined by looking at both evidence of crime and perception of security.
- Affordability: Comparison of salaries and cost of living.
- Unemployment: The unemployment rate in a city.
- Pollution: The levels of air, noise and light pollution. Naturally, the less pollution, the higher a city scored.
- Transportation: The quality of transport in the city, looking at both road congestion and public transport.
2. Maternity Law and Health
- National Maternity/Paternity Law: Paid maternity leave available, full paid parental leave available, both maternity and paternity.
- Healthcare: The quality of healthcare, looking at the percentage of GDP spent on healthcare as well as the percentage of the population covered by private or public health insurance.
3. Happiness
The overall happiness of people in the city, for which the score was derived from the World Happiness Report.
4. Travel and Activities
- Kid friendly airports: How friendly local airports are for kids, especially for families with young children.
- Green spaces: How many green public spaces a city has.
- Activities for kids: The activities on offer for kids, looking at the number of adventure parks, museums, hotels, and other travel and tourism factors affecting both residents and visitors.
5. Expert Perception
- Parents: Parents were asked what factors contribute to a good family city, plus how good their city is for raising a family.
- Professionals: Over 30 000 parenting experts and family journalists were asked to rate how good their city is for raising a family.
Australia’s best cities for families
Three Australian cities made it onto Homeday’s list:
- Sydney;
- Melbourne; and
- Brisbane.
Sydney
Sydney is at the number 13 spot, out of 100 countries.
The four highest scores came in exceptionally close to each other – ‘Kid friendly airports’, ‘Professionals’, ‘Green Spaces’ and ‘Activities for kids’. The individual scores were, in order, 10.00, 9.35, 9.34 and 9.33.
The fact that ‘Green spaces’ and ‘Activities for kids’ scored so high should be fantastic news for any parent, because it means children can be kept occupied for hours, with the health benefits that come from being out in nature.
Melbourne
At number 15, Melbourne is only two places lower than Sydney.
The capital of Victoria scored best in ‘Professionals’ and second best in ‘Parents’, which means parenting experts, family journalists, and parents think Melbourne is a great city for families
The third highest score was achieved for ‘Activities for kids’, so this is another Australian city with great choices when you need to entertain the children.
Brisbane
Brisbane came in at number 18, with the highest score achieved for ‘Cost of living’. This is great news for anyone, but even more so for families.
Coming in at numbers 2 and 3 are ‘Professionals’ and ‘Parents’, which means that, just like with Melbourne, those know families best vouch for Brisbane.
Looking closer at Brisbane’s scores, you’ll see that Brisbane actually scored really well on a number of factors, including ‘Pollution’, which means the city has little pollution, ‘Safety’ and ‘Overall happiness’.
Background
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more thorough study for families with children than this one! Homeday consulted with hundreds of parents, thousands of parenting and family experts, and dived into numerous statistics and studies.
The first step in their study was talking to the parents to find out what makes a city great for raising a family. Parents were also asked to rate their own cities.
Using this feedback, Homeday determined the categories and factors against which thousands of cities in the world were graded against. Only the 100 best cities made the final list.
To round off the study, Homeday asked 30 000 parenting experts and family journalists to rate how good their own city is for raising a family. Homeday then ranked all of these factors to determine the final score of each city.
Keen to see which other cities made the list?
Homeday stresses that the cities on their list are the best 100 out of thousands, which means all the cities found on the list are good cities to raise a family.