IRSAD
Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage
Score 1,074
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
Waterloo
New South Wales · Census 2021
$1.88M+3.2% yrmedian house · Dec 2025
Waterloo (NSW) is an inner-city suburb of Sydney.
Median house price
$1.88M83rd pctile
of 2,365 priced NSW suburbs
Household income
$2,028/wk72nd pctile
of 4,352 NSW suburbs
Amenity score
100/10098th 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 price83rd percentile
<$160k2,365 priced suburbs$5.5M+
Household income / wk72nd percentile
<$564ABS Census 2021$3,833+
Median house price+27% vs Greater Sydney · +128% vs Rest of NSW
SydneyRest of state
Greater Sydney $1.49M · Rest of NSW $825kWaterloo (NSW) $1.88M
Household income / wk
NSW · AU
NSW median suburb $1,583 · AU median suburb $1,562Waterloo (NSW) $2,028
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
16,379
Median age
33 yrs
Income / person / wk
$1,172
Household income / wk
$2,028
▲ 28% vs NSW
Median rent / wk
$530
Mortgage / month
$2,500
Who lives here
- Couples with children
- 9%
- −23 pts vs NSW
- Living alone
- 40%
- +15 pts vs NSW
- Unemployment
- 6%
- +1 pts vs NSW
- In the labour force
- 64%
- +5 pts vs NSW
- Bachelor degree or higher
- 48%
- +20 pts vs NSW
- Earning $1–$499 a week
- 18%
- −5 pts vs NSW
- Earning $2,000+ a week
- 22%
- +8 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
8,046 occupied private dwellings
- Separate house 1%
- Flat or apartment 91%
- Semi, terrace & other 8%
NSW: 65% separate houses · 22% flats & apartments
- Owned outright 6%
- Mortgaged 18%
- Rented 73%
- 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 969
Measures relative socio-economic disadvantage only; a higher score means less disadvantage.
Within AustraliaDecile 3 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 3 of 10
IER
Economic Resources
Score 842
Measures access to economic resources, including income, housing costs and assets.
Within AustraliaDecile 1 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 1 of 10
IEO
Education and Occupation
Score 1,112
Measures relative education and occupation characteristics.
Within AustraliaDecile 10 of 10
Within New South WalesDecile 10 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
28 m
range 16–40 m
Land below 5 m
0%
0% 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 →- Centres & mixed use69%
- General / medium / high-density residential14%
- Infrastructure & special purpose6.9%
- Open space & recreation5.7%
- Growth area, deferred or unzoned<0.1%
4.9% of the suburb sits outside any mapped zone (typically unzoned roads, water or land outside the scheme), so the shares add up to 95%.
In a heritage area
16%
conservation area / Heritage Overlay
Show on map →Listed heritage places
44
items in the LEP heritage schedule
Max building height
9 m
typical; up to 35 m
mapped on 72% of residential land
Floor space ratio
1.25:1
floor area allowed per m² of site
mapped on 72% of residential land
Planning instrument: Sydney Local Environmental Plan 2012. 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): minimum lot size (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
2
Supermarkets
9
Pubs & bars
8
Parks
23
Libraries
1
GP clinics
3
Pharmacies
3
Hospitals
0
Nearest supermarket
0.3 km
Nearest train
0.7 km
Nearest hospital
2.5 km
Distance to coast
3.2 km
Grocery mix: 1 Coles · 1 Aldi · 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 · 50%
- Top language at home
- Mandarin · 6%
- No religion
- 50%
- Born overseas
- 59%
- English only at home
- 57%
Schools by sector
- Government / Catholic / Indep.
- 1 / 1 / 0
- Primary / Secondary
- 2 / 1
- Nearest secondary
- 0.5 km
School sector & type: ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority), School Location dataset.
Local council
- Council (LGA)
- Sydney
- Population
- 241,797 (2025) · +1.8% in a year
- Area / density
- 27 km² · 9,056/km²
- Council medians (2021)
- age 34 · $2,212/wk household income · $550/wk rent
- Council-wide house median (2023-24)
- $2.1M
- Federal grants
- $8.12M in 2025-26 · $34/resident
- Website
- cityofsydney.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
- Sydney
- Federal MP
- Tanya Plibersek (ALP)
- Two-party-preferred
- Labor 78% 2PP
- State electorate
- Heffron
- State MP
- Ron Hoenig (ALP)
Crime & safety
Break-ins
1,362/100k
92nd percentile
Car theft
225/100k
70th percentile
Property damage
2,485/100k
91st percentile
Violent crime
4,622/100k
89th 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.