The communities of Baffle Creek, Deepwater and Rules Beach have diverse household types with the main group being couples without children.

When looking at combined data for Baffle Creek, Deepwater and Rules Beach, the percentage of couple families with children, is 23.79 per cent, which is significantly lower than the region at 41.7 per cent and the State at 41.2 per cent.

When reviewing data for each individual community there are even bigger differences in the data. Only 12.5 per cent of families have children in Baffle Creek compared to 25.4 per cent in Deepwater and 26.3 per cent in Rules Reach.

All communities have a higher proportion of couple families without children, when looking at the combined data in Baffle Creek, Deepwater and Rules Beach. Couple families without children make up 64.9 per cent of the population compared to 40.5 per cent for the region.

The number of families has stayed relatively static between 2016 and 2021, the number of families increasing from 111 in 2016 to 114 in 2021.

The number of one parent families is lower than the region and State, however, has increased between 2016 and 2021. In 2016 there were either one parent families, representing 7.2 per cent of families, while in 2021 there were 13 one parent families representing 11.4 per cent of all families. There was a decrease in one parent families in Rules Beach between 2016 and 2021, meaning there are now zero one parent families in Rules beach.

There are 152 people in a registered marriage in Baffle Creek, Deepwater and Rules Beach, which is 41.8 per cent of the population, closely aligned to the region at 43.6 per cent. There has been a 4.8 per cent reduction in the population in a registered marriage between 2016 and 2021.

There has been a notable increase in the percentage of the population that are not married, which was 40.3 per cent of the population in 2016, increasing to 48.1 per cent in 2021, an increase of 46 people.

Considerations:

• With almost two thirds of the population couple families without children and ageing in place, programs and services should reflect health, education, wellbeing and connection.

Social Marital Status