First look: How Bundaberg, Qld will change in the next 20 years

The Bundaberg region is expected to continue transforming in fundamental way, with new reports revealing what the region will look like – and the problems it may face – as it heads towards 2046.

AERIAL PHOTOS: Bundaberg Region East Bundaberg Distillery Burnett River.

Bundaberg’s population growth is expected to slow significantly in the next 20 years, with new figures revealing the rate will half by 2046.

Latest figures from the Queensland Government Statistician’s office reveal the region’s already existing age gap compared to the rest of the state is expected to widen further in the next two decades.

The figures show the median age of Bundaberg’s residents in 2023 was 47.6, almost 10 years older than the statewide average of 38.5.

By 2046 this was expected to be 50.9 years, nine years older than the rest of the state.

This was driven by an ongoing demographic gap in the region’s 25-44 age group.

Bundaberg’s population growth is expected to slow significantly in the next 20 years, with new figures revealing the rate will half by 2046.

Where this age group makes up 27.6 per cent of Queensland’s overall population, in Bundaberg it accounted for one fifth (20.5 per cent).

In contrast more than a quarter (26.3 per cent) of Bundaberg’s residents were aged 65 or older, eight percentage points higher than state’s 17 per cent average.

The brakes were expected to be put on a population which had been growing at the same rate as Queensland’s, too.

From 2021 to 2046 Bundaberg’s population was predicted to grow from 100,118 to 114,091, an average annual growth rate of .5 per cent.

This was half the region’s average annual growth rate of 1 per cent between 2013 and 2023.

In comparison Queensland’s population was expected rate of 1.5 per cent per year in the same period.

The expected growth will come amid lingering socio-economic concerns in the region.

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Economic disadvantage at the Wide Bay Burnett remains among the worst in Australia, Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows.

The figures show in 2021 the region recorded a homelessness rate of 64.5 people per 10,000, more than 50 per cent higher than Queensland’s rate of 43.2 per 10,000 people.

Economic disadvantage remains a major problem with almost half (49.8 per cent) of the region’s population falling into the lowest fifth of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ SEIFA disadvantage scale.

The ABS says low SEIFA scores are found in places with “many households with low incomes, or many people in unskilled occupations, and a few households with high incomes, or few people in skilled occupations”.

Only 1.1 per cent of the region’s population falls in the top fifth of the disadvantage scale.

The median personal income for Bundaberg residents was $594 per week, about $200 less than Queensland’s median of $787.

The median yearly personal and family incomes for Bundaberg residents were $30,888 and $74,204.

These were below the state averages of $40,924 and $105,248.

The region’s residents are also reliant on social service support payments, with higher rates of people in the region claiming the aged pension, carer allowance, disability support pension, family tax benefit A, and Jobseeker than the state’s average.