Demographic and economic impact of mining on remote communities in Australia

Mining and non-mining SLAs are compared. Mining SLAs have the following:•Larger populations and workforce, fewer Indigenous people and lower unemployment.•Smaller primary and social services sectors but a bigger construction sector.•Better human capital and more residents with tertiary qualifications.•Higher and more equitably distributed incomes.•The differences widened over the period of the resource boom.

The paper analyses the impact of mining on remote statistical local areas (SLAs) in Australia by comparing mining to non-mining SLAs and investigating changes emerging in the two types of SLAs from the resources boom. Specifically, differences are investigated for demographics, industry structure, human capital, income and wealth. Multivariate analyses of variance with main effects for the size of mining industry and interaction effects for census periods are carried out with 197 SLAs. The findings reveal that mining SLAs tend to have larger populations and workforce, fewer Indigenous people and lower unemployment. Mining SLAs have relatively smaller primary and social services sectors but a bigger construction sector. Human capital is greater with more residents having tertiary qualifications and technical occupations in mining SLAs. Incomes are higher and more equitably distributed in mining than non-mining SLAs. These differences widened between 2006 and 2011 during the resource boom.