IRSAD
Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage
Score 1,011
Measures relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage.
Within AustraliaDecile 7 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 6 of 10
For state-level context, explore the New South Wales economy.
Housing
Caves Beach
New South Wales · Census 2021
$1.40M+6.9% yrmedian house · Dec 2025
Caves Beach is a coastal suburb of Lake Macquarie.
Median house price
$1.40M71st pctile
of 2,433 priced NSW suburbs
Household income
$1,628/wk54th pctile
of 4,352 NSW suburbs
Amenity score
36/10077th pctile
of 2,112 rated NSW suburbs
Median house price
Rolling median of settled transfers, state Valuer-General open data (CC BY 4.0). New South Wales average of suburb medians: $1.4M.
How it compares
Median house price71st percentile
<$169k2,433 priced suburbs$5.5M+
Household income / wk54th percentile
<$564ABS Census 2021$3,833+
Percentiles rank this suburb against New South Wales suburbs that carry the metric — never across states, and never against suburbs where it is missing. The state and national figures are the average of the latest suburb medians in that area, not a transaction-weighted median.
People & housing
Population
4,016
Median age
49 yrs
Income / person / wk
$711
Household income / wk
$1,628
▼ 4% vs NSW
Median rent / wk
$420
Mortgage / month
$2,090
Socio-economic profile
IRSD
Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage
Score 1,030
Measures relative socio-economic disadvantage only; a higher score means less disadvantage.
Within AustraliaDecile 6 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 6 of 10
IER
Economic Resources
Score 1,038
Measures access to economic resources, including income, housing costs and assets.
Within AustraliaDecile 6 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 6 of 10
IEO
Education and Occupation
Score 989
Measures relative education and occupation characteristics.
Within AustraliaDecile 6 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 5 of 10
Scores are standardised across Australia to a mean of 1,000 and a standard deviation of 100. Deciles run from 1 (most disadvantaged) to 10 (least disadvantaged).
Source: ABS SEIFA 2021 (CC BY 4.0).
Terrain & hazard exposure
Median elevation
15 m
range 0–71 m
Land below 5 m
16%
8.5% below 2 m
Shares are the proportion of the suburb's land area. Land where Landsat saw water in at least 1% of clear passes since 1987, excluding permanent water and filtered by DEA's confidence layer. Satellites miss flood peaks, so this is a floor, not a risk estimate; dense high-rise cores can still register tower shadow as water. A statutory planning-control boundary, not a flood extent, and it can lag the latest flood study. NSW councils have owned flood-map currency since July 2021, so the state layer may be older than a council's own study. Designated for development control; a designation, not a prediction of fire behaviour. Elevation is orthometric height from a 30 m model; no hydrology or drainage is modelled.
Local amenities
Schools
2
Supermarkets
2
Pubs & bars
1
Parks
6
Libraries
0
GP clinics
0
Pharmacies
1
Hospitals
0
Nearest supermarket
0.1 km
Nearest train
13.6 km
Nearest hospital
8.9 km
Distance to coast
0.7 km
NBN
FIXED LINE
Grocery mix: 1 IGA. Amenity counts via © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) & Geoscience Australia HealthDirect (CC BY 4.0). Distance to coast derived from ABS state boundaries (CC BY 4.0).
Culture & community
- Dominant religion
- No religion · 40%
- Top language at home
- Filipino · 0%
- No religion
- 40%
- Born overseas
- 12%
- English only at home
- 96%
Schools by sector
- Government / Catholic / Indep.
- 2 / 0 / 0
- Primary / Secondary
- 1 / 1
- Nearest secondary
- 0.4 km
School sector & type: ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority), School Location dataset.
Local council
- Council (LGA)
- Lake Macquarie
- Population / area
- 210,044 · 649 km²
- Density
- 324/km²
- Federal grants
- $21.21M/yr · $101/resident
Council boundary: ABS ASGS LGA 2024. Federal grants: Financial Assistance Grants, Dept of Infrastructure. All CC BY 4.0.
Representation
- Federal division
- Shortland
- Federal MP
- Pat Conroy (ALP)
- Two-party-preferred
- Labor 62% 2PP
- State electorate
- Swansea
- State MP
- Yasmin Catley (ALP)
Crime & safety
Break-ins
331/100k
42nd percentile
Car theft
106/100k
35th percentile
property damage
821/100k
50th percentile
Violent crime
1,604/100k
45th percentile
FY2024–25, 2-yr pooled. Recorded incidents: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR); adjusted to the ABS Crime Victimisation Survey; ABS ERP population denominator. All CC BY 4.0. Percentile is the population-weighted rank among suburbs in the same state — higher means more reported crime. Ranks are never compared across states, because each police force counts offences under its own rules.
Comparable suburbs
Closest by median house price across NSW.
Similar suburbs
Closest demographic & amenity profile, nationally.
Sources: ABS ASGS boundaries (CC BY 4.0); ABS Census 2021 (CC BY 4.0); New South Wales Valuer-General settled transfers (CC BY 4.0); ACARA School Locations (CC BY 4.0); © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); Australian Electoral Commission (CC BY 4.0); Geoscience Australia 1 Second DEM-S (CC BY 4.0); DEA Water Observations Statistics, Geoscience Australia (CC BY 4.0); NSW Environmental Planning Instrument — Flood, NSW Department of Planning (CC BY 4.0); NSW Bush Fire Prone Land, NSW Rural Fire Service (CC BY 4.0); Wikipedia state-member tables (CC BY-SA 4.0). Not financial advice.