Millennials fleeing Sydney drives baby boom in the bush

Bush towns are the new front line of NSW’s baby boom, with new data showing they are now outstripping city areas in year-on-year birthrates. See what areas are fuelling the baby boom.

Southern Highland mums Sophie Mainprize with son Marko, Bella Doran-Jones with son Felix and Amy Montgomery with son Maverick are helping to fuel the bush baby boom. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Bush towns are the new front line of NSW’s baby boom, with new data showing the regions are now outstripping city areas in year-on-year birthrates.

Local government area birth data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed the Southern Highlands region of Wingecarribee had the largest year-on-year increase in births in NSW in 2023, welcoming 518 babies, 72 more than in 2022.

Blacktown had the largest number of births in NSW in 2023 with 5859 babies born there, but this was a decrease from the year before, where there were 6079.

LGAs with the biggest decrease in births include Central Coast with 360 fewer, followed by Sutherland with 277, the Northern Beaches with 241 and Bayside with 225.

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Demographics Group data scientist Hari Kannan said the baby boom in bushland regions is due to an influx of millennials moving away from Sydney and she expects the trend to continue.

“There is a strong growth in regional areas for the 25-29 age group,” Ms Kannan said.

“Most people have their babies in their 30s so that might be a reason why there are more, also because this is the millennial generation and most of them are in their family formation stages. Any region that has a boost of millennial population will see a growth in number of births.”

The ABS data also revealed the rural town of Gilgandra in northwestern NSW had the highest average fertility rate of 3.59 babies per mother.

Felix 10 months, seven month old Maverick and eight month old Markoare are part of the baby boom that has hit the Southern Highlands. Picture: Tim Hunter.

The City of Sydney, which has a population over 230,000 had a fertility rate of just 0.83, the lowest in the state.

Welby mum Bella Doran-Jones moved from Sydney to the Wingecaribee area two years ago and welcomed her second child Felix, in January.

“It’s just more affordable here, we were living in a tiny two-bedroom apartment and wanted a backyard,” Ms Doran-Jones said.

“We wanted that for our kids and we just couldn’t afford anything unless it was on the outskirts of Sydney so we thought why not just give the Southern Highlands a go.”

The 32-year-old said she doesn’t plan on moving back to Sydney.

“We love it here, we’ve really settled in and found our little village,” ,” she said.

“It turns out a lot of young families had the same idea, moving out of Sydney as well because they wanted more space and for affordability.”