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South Western Sydney PHN covers the south western suburbs of metropolitan Sydney and extends south to the Southern Highlands, an area of 6,243 square kilometres.
Our region includes the seven local government areas (LGAs) of Camden, Campbelltown, Fairfield, Liverpool, Wingecarribee, Wollondilly and of the former Bankstown, now part of Canterbury-Bankstown LGA.
Our diverse region is one of the fastest growing in NSW due to greenfield developments and extensive urban in-fill development and our population is expected to increase from just over one million people in 2021 to 1.284 million by 2031.
Population and region
Each of our local government areas is unique, from a community perspective but also from a health service delivery perspective.
South Western Sydney has pockets of socio-economic disadvantage in some parts of the region, and large populations of culturally and linguistically diverse communities in others.
Our region also covers the rural and outer metropolitan areas of Wollondilly and the Southern Highlands where access to health services can be challenging.
Our community
Our population is expected to grow by a third between 2016 and 2031, from just under 1 million people to just over 1.2 million.
We expect growth to be highest in the Camden and Liverpool local government areas (LGAs) and in the older age groups. Our older population (those aged 65 years or older) is expected to increase substantially between 2016 and 2031 from 127,000 to 221,000, an increase of 74 per cent.
South West Sydney also has a relatively young population profile compared to NSW, with a median age of 35 years (compared to 41 years for NSW).
We have a greater proportion of people aged under 15 years compared to NSW and adults aged 25 to 64 account for 51.7 per cent of our population. Children aged 14 and under account for 21.3 per cent and people over 65 years of age account for 13.1 per cent of the population.
Diverse and inclusive
South Western Sydney has the largest number of Aboriginal residents in metropolitan Sydney with one in 50 residents identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Aboriginal people are more likely to live in the Macarthur region (Campbelltown, Wollondilly and Camden LGAs), where more than one in 25 people identify as Aboriginal.
Approximately 43 per cent of the population in South Western Sydney was born overseas (compared with 34 per cent for NSW) and the overseas-born population in our region is not evenly distributed. Almost 60 per cent of people living in Fairfield were born overseas, while less than 20 per cent of the Wingecarribee population (the Southern Highlands) was born outside of Australia.
The Fairfield LGA also has the highest proportion of residents who speak a language other than English at home (71 per cent), followed by Bankstown and Liverpool LGAs (with 56 per cent and 52 per cent respectively). After English, the most common languages spoken at home are Arabic, Vietnamese and Cantonese.
