IRSAD
Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage
Score 1,059
Measures relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage.
Within AustraliaDecile 9 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 9 of 10
For state-level context, explore the New South Wales economy.
Housing
Cowan
New South Wales · Census 2021
$1.30M-3.7% yrmedian house · Dec 2024
Cowan is a coastal suburb of Hornsby.
Median house price
$1.30M67th pctile
of 2,365 priced NSW suburbs
Household income
$2,250/wk82nd pctile
of 4,352 NSW suburbs
Amenity score
6/10035th pctile
of 2,112 rated NSW suburbs
Median house price
Rolling median of settled transfers, state Valuer-General open data (CC BY 4.0). Median of New South Wales suburb medians: $1.0M.
How it compares
Median house price67th percentile
<$160k2,365 priced suburbs$5.5M+
Household income / wk82nd percentile
<$564ABS Census 2021$3,833+
Median house price-12% vs Greater Sydney · +58% vs Rest of NSW
SydneyRest of state
Greater Sydney $1.49M · Rest of NSW $825kCowan $1.30M
Percentiles rank this suburb against New South Wales suburbs that carry the metric — never across states, and never against suburbs where it is missing. Price references are ABS median established-house transfer prices for the Mar 2026 quarter (CC BY 4.0); the suburb figure is a Valuer-General median over a different window, so read the gap as indicative. Income references are the Census 2021 median of the middle suburb in New South Wales and nationally, not a household-weighted median.
People & housing
Population
631
Median age
41 yrs
Income / person / wk
$852
Household income / wk
$2,250
▲ 42% vs NSW
Median rent / wk
$515
Mortgage / month
$2,290
Who lives here
- Couples with children
- 46%
- +14 pts vs NSW
- Living alone
- 15%
- −10 pts vs NSW
- Unemployment
- 4%
- −1 pts vs NSW
- In the labour force
- 67%
- +8 pts vs NSW
- Bachelor degree or higher
- 30%
- +2 pts vs NSW
- Earning $1–$499 a week
- 25%
- +2 pts vs NSW
- Earning $2,000+ a week
- 17%
- +3 pts vs NSW
Households for the family mix, residents aged 15+ for work, education and income; unemployment is a share of the labour force. NSW figures weight each suburb by its dwellings or residents. ABS Census 2021 (CC BY 4.0). Withheld for very small populations — under 100 residents, or under 50 dwellings, households or workers for the shares that count those.
Housing stock
208 occupied private dwellings
- Separate house 98%
- Flat or apartment 1%
NSW: 65% separate houses · 22% flats & apartments
ABS Census 2021 (CC BY 4.0). Withheld for very small populations — under 100 residents, or under 50 dwellings, households or workers for the shares that count those.
Socio-economic profile
IRSD
Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage
Score 1,070
Measures relative socio-economic disadvantage only; a higher score means less disadvantage.
Within AustraliaDecile 9 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 8 of 10
IER
Economic Resources
Score 1,084
Measures access to economic resources, including income, housing costs and assets.
Within AustraliaDecile 9 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 8 of 10
IEO
Education and Occupation
Score 1,046
Measures relative education and occupation characteristics.
Within AustraliaDecile 9 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 8 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
121 m
range 0–227 m
Land below 5 m
4.7%
4.3% below 2 m
Shares are the proportion of the suburb's land area; where part of a suburb is unmapped, only its mapped land counts, so the share is a floor. 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. Only the councils that lodged a flood map in their planning instrument are covered; everywhere else is shown as no statutory layer, not as 0%. 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.
Planning & zoning
Zoning mix (share of the suburb's land)
Show on map →- Conservation86%
- Infrastructure & special purpose5.4%
- Open space & recreation3.7%
- Waterways3.3%
- Low-density residential1.1%
- Centres & mixed use<0.1%
In a heritage area
0%
conservation area / Heritage Overlay
Show on map →Listed heritage places
10
items in the LEP heritage schedule
Max building height
8.5 m
typical; up to 10.5 m
Minimum lot size
500 m²
to subdivide residential land
Planning instrument: Hornsby Local Environmental Plan 2013. Zones are grouped into ten families so states compare; the council's own scheme is the authority for any one lot. Height, floor space ratio and lot size are the NSW Local Environmental Plan standards: the area-weighted median over the residential-zoned land where the LEP maps that standard, given only where it maps it on at least half of that land; clause-based exceptions are not modelled. Not given because the LEP maps it on under half of the suburb's residential land (usually only its centres): floor space ratio (0%). Listed-place counts follow each state's own list, so they do not compare across states. Source: NSW EPI Land Zoning; NSW EPI Heritage; NSW EPI Height of Buildings, Floor Space Ratio and Lot Size.
Local amenities
Schools
1
Supermarkets
0
Pubs & bars
0
Parks
2
Libraries
0
GP clinics
0
Pharmacies
0
Hospitals
0
Nearest supermarket
5.8 km
Nearest train
3.0 km
Nearest hospital
13.9 km
Distance to coast
0.8 km
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 · 46%
- Top language at home
- Mandarin · 0%
- No religion
- 46%
- Born overseas
- 17%
- English only at home
- 93%
Schools by sector
- Government / Catholic / Indep.
- 1 / 0 / 0
- Primary / Secondary
- 1 / 0
- Nearest secondary
- 10.5 km
School sector & type: ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority), School Location dataset.
Local council
- Council (LGA)
- Hornsby
- Population
- 155,484 (2025) · +0.4% in a year
- Area / density
- 455 km² · 342/km²
- Council medians (2021)
- age 41 · $2,417/wk household income · $495/wk rent
- Council-wide house median (2023-24)
- $2.0M
- Federal grants
- $6.00M in 2025-26 · $39/resident
- Website
- hornsby.nsw.gov.au/Home
Council boundaries and the suburb split: ABS ASGS LGA 2024, allocated by 2021 mesh block and weighted by Census 2021 residents. Population: ABS Estimated Resident Population 2025. Medians: ABS Census 2021. House median: ABS Data by Region, established-house transfers across the whole council, financial year 2023-24. Federal grants: Financial Assistance Grants, Dept of Infrastructure. ABS and Dept of Infrastructure data CC BY 4.0; council website from Wikidata (CC0).
Representation
- Federal division
- Berowra
- Federal MP
- Julian Leeser (LP)
- Two-party-preferred
- Coalition 52% 2PP
- State electorate
- Hornsby
- State MP
- James Wallace (LIB)
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); NSW Environmental Planning Instrument — Land Zoning, NSW Department of Planning (CC BY); NSW Environmental Planning Instrument — Heritage, NSW Department of Planning (CC BY); NSW Environmental Planning Instrument — Height of Buildings, Floor Space Ratio and Minimum Lot Size, NSW Department of Planning (CC BY); Wikipedia state-member tables (CC BY-SA 4.0). Not financial advice.