Coral Bay, WA
By Lauren McCaleb · Reviewed by Dylan Duncan ·
Coral Bay is a small tourism town on Western Australia's Coral Coast, in the Gascoyne about 1,200 kilometres north of Perth and 150 kilometres south of Exmouth. The Thalanyji people are the traditional owners of this stretch of coast. The settlement takes its name from the Coral Bay Hotel, built in the late 1960s when Ken Ryan added a caravan park, hotel and service station; an earlier wool port nearby, Mauds Landing, was named after a schooner. Today almost everyone works in tourism, which draws around 110,000 visitors a year. The town sits right against Ningaloo Reef, the world's largest fringing reef, which reaches the very edge of the beach, so swimmers can snorkel off the sand among manta rays, turtles, whale sharks and humpback whales.
Around the national middle
Coral Bay is more socio-economically advantaged than about 40% of the 14,462 Australian suburbs we score, based on the ABS SEIFA index (raw score 971, where about 1000 is the national average).
A socio-economic measure from ABS Census data — not a measure of how good a suburb is to live in or visit. How we calculate this.
Coral Bay at a glance
- Population (2021)
- 245
- Median age
- 33
- Median weekly household income
- $1,166
- SEIFA score
- 971
- Coordinates
- -23.1436, 113.7729
Coral Bay demographics (2021 Census)
The figures below profile Coral Bay using the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census; every percentage is a share of a clearly stated Census count, so each one traces back to the source. At a glance, the largest age group is young adults (25–44) at 42%, 52% of homes are rented, and 30% of residents were born overseas.
Age profile
| Age group | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Children (0–14) | 22 | 9% |
| Youth (15–24) | 37 | 15% |
| Young adults (25–44) | 102 | 42% |
| Mid-life (45–64) | 55 | 23% |
| Seniors (65+) | 26 | 11% |
Share of the 242 people counted by age.
Housing and households
| Tenure | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Owned outright | 18 | 25% |
| Owned with a mortgage | 5 | 7% |
| Rented | 37 | 52% |
| Dwelling type | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | 9 | 15% |
| Townhouses & semis | 3 | 5% |
| Flats & apartments | 6 | 10% |
Tenure and dwelling shares are of the roughly 60 occupied private dwellings in Coral Bay.
- Median weekly rent
- $160
- Median monthly mortgage
- $3,390
- Average household size
- 2 people
- Median weekly family income
- $2,349
- Median weekly personal income
- $871
Community and culture
- Born overseas
- 69 (30%)
- Speaks a language other than English at home
- 27 (12%)
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
- 6 (2%)
Work and education
- Completed Year 12
- 132 (62%)
- Labour-force participation
- 78.7%
- Employed full-time
- 104
- Employed part-time
- 45
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021 (General Community Profile, by Suburb and Locality). © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. How we group bands and derive each share is set out on our methodology page.
Common questions about Coral Bay
Where is Coral Bay?
Coral Bay is a suburb of Western Australia, Australia.
What is the population of Coral Bay?
At the 2021 Census, Coral Bay had a population of about 245.
Is Coral Bay an advantaged area?
Coral Bay has an ABS SEIFA score of 971, where about 1000 is the national average — higher scores indicate greater relative socio-economic advantage. That gives it a Suburb Score of 40 out of 100 — more socio-economically advantaged than about 40% of Australian suburbs.
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