The fact sheet below provides a guide to the purpose and use of this statistical geography. The rings geography breaks Australia’s five largest capital cities into three concentric zones and can be used to analyse patterns in population, jobs, connectivity and access to services. This fact sheet provides a guide to understanding and using the classification.
South East Queensland research project
BCARR has undertaken a South East Queensland (SEQ) research project to provide an evidence base on the spatial distribution of population growth, jobs, connectivity and liveability of SEQ. This evidence can be used to monitor how population, jobs, connectivity and liveability change over time and respond to investment. The report aims to support the department's policy and project delivery. The final report is available below.
The role of socio-demographic and spatial characteristics in Work from Home in Australia
BCARR conducted a Work from Home (WfH) research project to provide evidence of how social, demographic and spatial characteristics influence WfH capability and uptake in Australian cities. The study also explores the link between WfH and relocation and investigates post-pandemic prospects for WfH in Australia. This new evidence can help improve understanding of the key drivers of WfH and the ongoing role that WfH will likely play in influencing urban and regional development outcomes in Australia.
Chapter 5
This chapter provides information on passenger transport activity, including nationally, by city pair, by capital city and by method of travel to work. The data in this chapter comes from a variety of sources, being from BITRE’s estimates, the ABS’ Census Basic Community Profiles Series and from Tourism Research Australia.
- 158 billion passenger kilometres were travelled by car on capital city roads in 2022-23.
- 10.5 billion passenger kilometres were travelled on heavy rail networks in 2022-23.
- 164 billion passenger kilometres were travelled by car on capital city roads in 2018-19, prior to any COVID impacts.
- 14.8 billion passenger kilometres were travelled on heavy rail in 2018-19, prior to any COVID impacts.
Figure 1 Australia’s National Passenger travel, 2022-23
Passenger transport activity (Figure 1) is measured by passenger kilometres (the number of kilometres travelled by passenger vehicles multiplied by the number of occupants in the vehicle).
Figure 2 Australian domestic passenger task, by mode of transport
The Australian domestic passenger task is dominated by road transport, mainly passenger cars (Figure 2). Passenger travel on other modes has generally been increasing, albeit with a dip over the pandemic period. Air travel expectedly fell most significantly, however in 2022-23 it had recovered to near its pre-pandemic level.
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Chapter 2
This chapter provides information on passenger transport activity, including nationally, by city pair, by capital city and by method of travel to work. The data in this chapter comes from a variety of sources, including BITRE estimates, ABS Census and Tourism Research Australia.
- 166 billion passenger kilometres were travelled by car on capital city roads in 2024-25, of a total of 280 billion passenger kilometres nationwide.
- 16 billion passenger kilometres were travelled on rail in 2024-25 compared to 18 billion in 2018-19, prior to any COVID impacts.
Passenger transport activity is measured by passenger kilometres (the number of kilometres travelled by passenger vehicles multiplied by the number of occupants in the vehicle). As shown in Figure 3, the passenger task is dominated by road transport, mainly passenger cars. Passenger travel on other modes has generally been increasing, albeit with a dip over the pandemic. Air travel fell most significantly, however by 2024-25, it had surpassed its pre-pandemic level. Prior to COVID, public transport use was growing relatively quickly, as shown in Figure 4. By 2024-25 it has returned close to its 2018-19 peak.
Figure 3 Total national motorised passenger travel, by mode
Source: BITRE Estimates
Figure 4 Australian capital city domestic passenger task, by mode
Source: BITRE Estimates
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- Passengers—Yearbook 2025 (188 KB) - Download Excel file
- Australian Infrastructure and Transport Statistics Yearbook 2025 - Download PDF
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This is not the latest release. View the latest Working zones update
This report provides an overview of the newly developed Australian 'working zone' (WZ) regions which have been compiled by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE). WZs are mutually exclusive regions delineated to reflect the commuting patterns of Australian workers. WZs are useful for spatial analysis of economic, social and policy issues at a regional level because they reflect the actual geographic behaviour of individuals, as opposed to other administrative and political boundaries. They are particularly useful for analysing labour markets, because individual WZs have minimal work-based commuting flows either into or out of adjoining WZs.
- Working Zones 2016
- Working Zones 2016 Data
- Working Zones 2016 to SA2 Concordance
- Working Zones 2016 Shape File
Review of the National Cities Performance Framework – Final paper
The National Cities Performance Framework (NCPF) was launched in 2017 with the commitment to conduct reviews every 3 years. This report covers the feedback received and the approach for the future of the NCPF. The conclusion of the NCPF review is that alternate departmental data and research products better meet the needs of stakeholders and that the Framework should be phased out. Targeted research will focus on issues of the highest priority to the government and cities’ stakeholders.
Australia’s light vehicle fleet - some insights
This Information Sheet investigates how the characteristics of Australia’s light vehicle fleet vary across different types of regions, including States/Territories, major cities, city sectors, region types, and small areas. Vehicle characteristics considered include fuel type, average age, cylinders and tare weight. Specific types of vehicles, such as electric vehicles, sports utility vehicles and utilities are also examined. The study also identifies recent changes in the composition of Australia’s light vehicle fleet.
Review of the National Cities Performance Framework - Consultation paper
The National Cities Performance Framework (NCPF) was launched in 2017 with the commitment to conduct reviews every 3 years. The first 3 Year Review will examine what improvements can be implemented in the 2021 update and future years. This consultation paper is the start of the public consultation process, conducted over January-February 2021. It details the 3-year review process, the issues being considered, and the proposed approach for each issue. Some of the topics covered include potential new indicators, a review of the geographies, and improving the structure of the framework.
Population synthesis for travel demand modelling in Australian capital cities
In this research, the proposed synthesis routine has been used to generate full size synthetic populations of households and individuals for Greater Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Two heuristic algorithms have been formulated for data treatment before and after the synthesis process to improve the representation of the synthesised populations. The procedure proposed for data treatment before the synthesis routine ensures the consistency of the input data, whereas the procedure proposed for data treatment after the synthesis routine extends under-synthesised estimates to a complete synthetic population. The synthesis process was tested for its efficacy and the synthesised populations were validated extensively. This research contributes in setting up a replicable population synthesis routine that can be included into a standard methodological toolbox for transport researchers and mainstream social scientists to produce Australian synthetic populations that is essential to microsimulation analysis.
- Population Synthesis for Travel Demand Modelling in Australian Capital Cities