IRSAD
Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage
Score 1,076
Measures relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage.
Within AustraliaDecile 10 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 9 of 10
For state-level context, explore the New South Wales economy.
Housing
Shell Cove
New South Wales · Census 2021
$1.50M+11.1% yrmedian house · Dec 2025
Shell Cove is a coastal suburb of Shellharbour.
Median house price
$1.50M74th pctile
of 2,365 priced NSW suburbs
Household income
$2,452/wk88th pctile
of 4,352 NSW suburbs
Amenity score
55/10086th 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 price74th percentile
<$160k2,365 priced suburbs$5.5M+
Household income / wk88th percentile
<$564ABS Census 2021$3,833+
Median house price+1% vs Greater Sydney · +82% vs Rest of NSW
SydneyRest of state
Greater Sydney $1.49M · Rest of NSW $825kShell Cove $1.50M
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
7,591
Median age
40 yrs
Income / person / wk
$931
Household income / wk
$2,452
▲ 55% vs NSW
Median rent / wk
$600
Mortgage / month
$2,386
Who lives here
- Couples with children
- 48%
- +15 pts vs NSW
- Living alone
- 11%
- −14 pts vs NSW
- Unemployment
- 4%
- −2 pts vs NSW
- In the labour force
- 65%
- +6 pts vs NSW
- Bachelor degree or higher
- 23%
- −5 pts vs NSW
- Earning $1–$499 a week
- 21%
- −2 pts vs NSW
- Earning $2,000+ a week
- 18%
- +5 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
2,449 occupied private dwellings
- Separate house 87%
- Flat or apartment 4%
- Semi, terrace & other 8%
NSW: 65% separate houses · 22% flats & apartments
- Owned outright 35%
- Mortgaged 42%
- Rented 19%
- Other & not stated 3%
NSW: 31% owned outright · 33% mortgaged · 33% rented
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 1,077
Measures relative socio-economic disadvantage only; a higher score means less disadvantage.
Within AustraliaDecile 9 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 9 of 10
IER
Economic Resources
Score 1,115
Measures access to economic resources, including income, housing costs and assets.
Within AustraliaDecile 10 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 10 of 10
IEO
Education and Occupation
Score 1,021
Measures relative education and occupation characteristics.
Within AustraliaDecile 8 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 7 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
20 m
range 0–68 m
Land below 5 m
20%
7.4% 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. No flood map lodged in the NSW planning instruments for most of this suburb; most councils keep theirs in a development control plan. 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 →- Growth area, deferred or unzoned29%
- Conservation23%
- Low-density residential21%
- Open space & recreation12%
- General / medium / high-density residential5.3%
- Centres & mixed use2.4%
- Rural1.5%
- Waterways1.3%
- Infrastructure & special purpose0.5%
4.1% of the suburb sits outside any mapped zone (typically unzoned roads, water or land outside the scheme), so the shares add up to 96%.
In a heritage area
0%
conservation area / Heritage Overlay
Show on map →Listed heritage places
2
items in the LEP heritage schedule
Max building height
9 m
typical; up to 36 m
Floor space ratio
0.5:1
floor area allowed per m² of site
Minimum lot size
450 m²
to subdivide residential land
Planning instruments: Shellharbour Local Environmental Plan 2013; Kiama Local Environmental Plan 2011. 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. 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
2
Supermarkets
2
Pubs & bars
0
Parks
21
Libraries
0
GP clinics
0
Pharmacies
1
Hospitals
0
Nearest supermarket
1.3 km
Nearest train
2.0 km
Nearest hospital
4.8 km
Distance to coast
0.7 km
Grocery mix: 1 Woolworths. 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 · 32%
- Top language at home
- Macedonian · 2%
- No religion
- 32%
- Born overseas
- 18%
- English only at home
- 88%
Schools by sector
- Government / Catholic / Indep.
- 2 / 0 / 0
- Primary / Secondary
- 2 / 1
- Nearest secondary
- 0.4 km
School sector & type: ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority), School Location dataset.
Local council
- Council (LGA)
- Shellharbour
- Population
- 83,228 (2025) · +1.9% in a year
- Area / density
- 147 km² · 565/km²
- Council medians (2021)
- age 39 · $1,647/wk household income · $420/wk rent
- Council-wide house median (2023-24)
- $920k
- Federal grants
- $6.96M in 2025-26 · $84/resident
- Website
- shellharbour.nsw.gov.au
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
- Whitlam
- Federal MP
- Carol Berry (ALP)
- Two-party-preferred
- Labor 56% 2PP
- State electorate
- Shellharbour
- State MP
- Anna Watson (ALP)
Crime & safety
Break-ins
344/100k
44th percentile
Car theft
183/100k
60th percentile
Property damage
701/100k
41st percentile
Violent crime
726/100k
14th 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); 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.