Regional work-life balance better but less access to services: Australia Urban Observatory research

A report from the recently launched Australian Urban Observatory looked at 21 of the nation's largest cities, including 13 regional cities, which are home to about 13 per cent of Australians (about 3.3 million people).

It assessed a range of indicators to determine a city's liveability, including factors such as social infrastructure, walkability, public transport, public open space, housing affordability and local employment.

On average, residents of urban neighbourhoods in regional cities have access to just five of the 16 essential community services within the recommended distances.

Many of these regional cities are predicted to grow substantially over the next 30 years. Some are already among our fastest-growing urban areas.

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These regional cities are Albury-Wodonga, Newcastle-Maitland, Wollongong, Cairns, Gold Coast-Tweed Heads, Mackay, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Townsville, Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong and Launceston.

The research also found in many regional cities, residents live close to where they work leading to reduced travel times and improved work-life balance, while people living in capital cities often don't live and work close to home, with longer commuting times.

Regional areas led the study in access to local employment, with Townsville, Toowoomba and Mackay ranking the highest.

Regional Australians also have better access to parks and public spaces - almost 60 per cent of people in Ballarat live within 400 metres of a public open space of at least 1.5 hectares, while in Albury-Wodonga it's 50 per cent.

Unsurprisingly, regional cities performed better in the housing affordability indicator, reporting the lower levels of housing or rental stress.

In Launceston, only about one-third of low income earners spent 30 per cent or more of their income on housing - in capital cities that number rose to one-quarter, including Brisbane (41 per cent), Sydney (40 per cent) and Perth (39 per cent).

The Australian Urban Observatory hopes the research will be used by community groups, service providers and government agencies as evidence when lobbying for change.