--- title: "Where Communities Hold — and Where They Don’t" url: https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/series-24110/el1-where-communities-hold/ date: 2026-09-07 modified: 2026-10-10 lang: en author: "Nicklas Clark" description: "APN Codex · Node 24110 Distillation APN Bedrock™ · APN Social Capital Index™ (24100) EL1 — Plain English Where Communities Hold — and Where They Don't The APN Bedrock™ Score..." word_count: 755 --- # Where Communities Hold — and Where They Don’t APN Codex · Node 24110 Distillation APN Bedrock™ · APN Social Capital Index™ (24100) EL1 — Plain English ### Where Communities Hold — and Where They Don't The APN Bedrock™ Score reads the socio-economic position of every suburb in Australia. It asks a different question from price: how are the households in an area placed — on income, home ownership, jobs and financial pressure — against the rest of the country? \g6,782 \g49.86 \g0.53 – 97.00 Data vintage2021 Census [EL1 · Plain English](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/series-24110/el1-where-communities-hold/) [EL2 · Foundational](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/series-24110/el2-five-dimensions-of-the-bedrock-score/) [EL3 · Practitioner](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/series-24110/el3-reading-bedrock-in-practice/) [EL4 · Advanced Practitioner](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/series-24110/el4-bedrock-architecture-and-limitations/) 1What the score tells youEvery suburb in Australia has a price. Price tells you what people paid; it says little about the economic standing of the households who live there. The APN Bedrock™ Score was built to describe that standing. Think of it as an economic profile of a suburb: it looks beneath the sale price at the income, ownership, employment and financial position of the households the area is made of. The score runs from 0 to 100. A high score means a suburb's households are well-placed on the measures Bedrock reads: higher incomes, higher rates of home ownership, lower unemployment, less financial stress, and a stronger relative-advantage reading than most of the country. A low score means the opposite: lower incomes, more financial pressure, and greater relative disadvantage. 75 – 100Strong foundationOwner-occupier dominated, higher incomes, low financial stress.50 – 74Solid groundMixed tenure and income profile, with some financial pressure.25 – 49ExposedHigher financial stress and lower incomes.0 – 24Structurally constrainedSignificant economic disadvantage across income, ownership and employment.A low score does not mean a suburb is a bad place to live. It means its households are, on average, in a weaker economic position. That is useful information for anyone making a long-term property decision, but it needs to be read alongside everything else you know about the area. 2Three suburbs, three very different foundationsThe index covers 6,782 suburbs and localities nationally. Three examples show the range: Barden Ridge NSWPostcode 2234 · Sydney – Sutherland90.78Composite97.8Income95.7Tenure83.5Labour83.9Stress93.0SEIFAStrong across all five dimensions: household income in the top 3% of localities, more than nine in ten dwellings owned outright or with a mortgage, unemployment of 2.6%, and mortgage repayments taking 19.5% of household income, a lighter burden than in 84% of localities. Abbotsbury NSWPostcode 2176 · Sydney – South West84.32Composite93.4Income84.4Tenure79.5Labour83.6Stress80.7SEIFAUpper tier on every dimension: household income in the top 7%, 87% of dwellings owner-occupied, unemployment of 2.9% and repayments of 19.5% of income. A socio-economic advantage reading of 80.7 places it a step below the top tier. Salisbury North SAPostcode 5108 · Adelaide – North16.48Composite12.1Income16.8Tenure5.1Labour45.6Stress2.8SEIFALow on four of the five dimensions: unemployment of 10.4%, household income in the bottom eighth, 58% of dwellings owner-occupied, and a socio-economic advantage reading in the bottom 3% nationally. Its repayment burden, 24.4% of income, is close to the national middle. The APN Bedrock™ Score measures not what a suburb is worth today, but the economic position of the households who live there. 3Why this matters for anyone buying propertyWhen you buy a property, the households around it are part of what you are buying into. Their economic position — incomes, home ownership, employment and financial pressure — describes the economic character of an area, and it can differ sharply between suburbs that look similar on price alone. The score gives you a single, independent number that captures all of that, derived from public data with no commercial interests behind it. It will not tell you whether prices will go up or down, and it does not predict which residents will stay or leave; no honest tool does. It tells you where a suburb's households sit, economically, relative to the rest of the country. 4How to use the mapThe interactive map shows every scored suburb in the country, colour-coded by score. Click any locality to see its overall APN Bedrock™ reading and the five component readings that make it up. Look up your own suburb, or compare the suburbs you are considering. The map is free to use and needs no login. Data vintageAll scores are derived from the 2021 ABS Census and the 2021 ABS SEIFA release, and describe structural conditions as measured at that point. They are a structural baseline, not a reading of current market conditions. A rebuild on 2026 Census data is planned as the ABS small-area releases become available through 2027. [Open the interactive map →](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/series-24110/map/)[24110 — APN Bedrock™ node page →](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/series-24110/) [Node page24110 — APN Bedrock™ (Socio-Economic Position)](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/series-24110/)[Parent index24100 — APN Social Capital Index™](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/)[Next tier →EL2 · Foundational: The Five Dimensions Behind the APN Bedrock™ Score](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/series-24110/el2-five-dimensions-of-the-bedrock-score/)