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Our communities

Overview of the communities the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing works with and seeks to empower.
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Our communities reflect the diversity and strengths of Victoria. This diversity is essential to the social and economic strength of our state.

LGBTIQ+

  • Approximately 5.7% of Victorian adults identify as LGBTIQ+.1

Young people

  • There are around 775,000 young people aged 15 to 24 in Victoria, representing almost 12% of the community.2
  • Almost 12,000 young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live in Victoria.3

CALD communities

  • More than half of all Victorians were born overseas or had a parent born overseas.4
  • Five in 10 Victorians follow one of more than 130 different faiths.5

Women

  • Women make up more than half of the Victorian population, at 50.8%.6
  • Women faced more job losses, more unpaid work and received less support during the COVID-19 pandemic.7
  • Older women make up the fastest growing group of homeless Australians.8

Veterans

  • About 500 new veterans move to Victoria each year.9
  • There are over 100,000 previous or current serving and reserve members of the Australian Defence Force living in Victoria10.

Senior Victorians

  • About one-quarter of Victorians will be aged over 60 by 2056.11
  • Over a million Victorians are aged over 65.12

Carers

  • Victoria has more than 730,000 carers.13
  • Women account for almost 70% of primary carers.14

People with disability

  • One in six Victorians (17% of the population) live with disability.15
  • Over 5% of Victorians experience severe or profound disability.16

People experiencing homelessness and housing stress

  • One in 57 Victorians access a state-funded homelessness service in 2018-19.17
  • Over 75% of these people could not be provided with long-term housing.18
  • More than 60,000 Victorians have applied to the social housing register. Of those applications, over 55% have an urgent housing need and are on the priority access list.19

Our department

Our outcomes

References

  1. Victorian Population Health Survey 2017

  2. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2021, National State and Territory Population, ABS, Canberra

  3. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2019, Estimates and projections: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, ABS, Canberra

  4. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2021 Census

  5. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2021 Census

  6. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 2021, Estimated Resident Population, States and Territories (Number), ABS, Canberra

  7. Wood D, Griffiths K & Crowley T 2021, Women’s work: The impact of the COVID crisis on Australian women, Grattan Institute, Melbourne

  8. Patterson K, Prof K & Maxwell J 2019, Older women's risk of homelessness: Background paper exploring a growing problem, Australian Human Rights Commission, Sydney

  9. Department of Veterans Affairs 2020, Population Projections: Executive Summary, December 2020

  10. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2021 Census

  11. Commissioner for Senior Victorians 2020, Ageing well in a changing world, State Government of Victoria, Melbourne

  12. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2021 Census

  13. Department of Health 2018, Victorian carer strategy 2018–2022, State Government of Victoria, Melbourne

  14. Department of Health 2018, Victorian carer strategy 2018–2022, State Government of Victoria, Melbourne

  15. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Victoria, 2018, cat. no. 4430.0, Table 1.3

  16. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2019, Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of findings, cat. no. 4430.0, Table 2.3

  17. Government of Victoria 2021, Inquiry into homelessness in Victoria: final report, Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee, Parliament of Victoria, Melbourne, pp.16-17

  18. Government of Victoria 2021, Inquiry into homelessness in Victoria: final report, Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee, Parliament of Victoria, Melbourne, pp.16-17

  19. Government of Victoria 2022, Victorian Housing Register and Transfer List – By local area March 2022