Why do people move to cities? 

We move because something in our life changes. We finish school. We start uni. We find a partner. We split from a partner. We have kids. We chase a promotion. We get sick of traffic. We need a bigger home. We want to be closer to mum. We want to be further away from everyone who knew us at school. 

Migration is rarely just an economic act. 

Urban geography research found that people move through a series of life-course stages and change their locations accordingly. 

Young adults move for study, first jobs, friendship networks and the chance to reinvent themselves.

Couples move when two careers must be balanced in one household.

Young families move when the apartment that felt exciting at 27 becomes too small at 35.

Older Australians move for climate, care, family, health services or simply a more manageable home.  

Cities and regions have different offerings. 

Cities offer jobs, universities, big hospitals, airports, nightlife, career ladders, specialist services, deep dating pools, professional networks and anonymity.

Cities match workers to employers, students to institutions, patients to specialists, migrants to communities and lonely people to other lonely people. 

Regional areas offer different things – space, affordability (at least in theory), nature, community, family support, lower congestion and a slower daily rhythm.

Regions sell the backyard, the beach, the mountain view, the local footy club, the shorter commute and the grandparents around the corner. 

Neither bundle is objectively better. The best place is the one that matches your life stage and personal preferences. 

A 22-year-old often needs density. A 35-year-old with two children wants space. A 70-year-old might look for comfortable climate, health care and proximity to family.

Many people change their postcode several times throughout their lifetime. 

Employment data from the past 10 years shows how regional and urban migration magnets changed. 

The two visuals compare employment by industry in metropolitan Australia (defined as the Greater Capital City Statistical Areas) and in regional Australia (all areas outside the capital cities). 

Between 2015 and 2025, metropolitan Australia added about 2.13 million jobs. That’s employment growth of 26 per cent. Regional Australia added about 661,000 jobs, growth of about 18 per cent. Put differently, 76 per cent of all new jobs were big city jobs. 

The big cities won the raw jobs race. No surprise there. Cities have deeper labour markets and more specialised employers.

If you are a lawyer, consultant, software worker, finance professional, corporate manager, architect, media worker or graduate trying to climb the career ladder, the big city remains the default option. 

But the more interesting story is not simply “cities got more jobs”. The more interesting story is which jobs grew. 

In metropolitan Australia, the biggest employment gain by far was in health care and social assistance.

The sector added roughly 597,000 metro jobs between 2015 and 2025. That is enormous. The second-biggest increase was professional, scientific and technical services, up about 312,000 jobs.

Education and training added about 289,000. Construction added 206,000. Public administration and safety added 178,000. 

That tells us something important about why cities grow. 

The modern Australian city is not just a place where head offices sit. It is a giant services machine. It educates, heals, administers, designs, consults, builds and coordinates.

The jobs that grew most strongly in metropolitan Australia are the jobs that require scale, specialisation and proximity to complex systems. 

Professional services are especially city-friendly. They thrive where clients, competitors, graduates, airports, universities and other specialists are clustered together.

A big city allows a worker with a niche skill to find a niche employer. It also allows the employer to find another niche worker when the first one leaves. That is the power of deep labour markets. 

This is why young skilled workers still drift to cities. They are not only chasing today’s job. They are chasing tomorrow’s second job, third job and fifth job. The first job gets you to the city. The career ladder keeps you there. 

Education plays the same role. Universities and major training institutions pull young people into cities at exactly the age when they are most mobile. 

Some countries created university cities, we plonked our universities smack bang into the CBD of our capital cities. Once in the big city, students form friendships, find partners, complete internships and take graduate roles.

The education move quietly becomes the career move. The career move becomes the relationship move. Ten years later, the former student is complaining about childcare costs in the same city they once moved to for freedom. 

Healthcare is the great cross-cutting sector. It grew strongly everywhere, but especially in the cities. That makes sense.

Big hospitals, specialist clinics, medical research, aged care, allied health and disability services all require large labour pools. An ageing population creates demand everywhere, but complex health systems concentrate in cities. 

Regional Australia tells a related but different story. 

Between 2015 and 2025, regional Australia’s biggest employment gain was also health care and social assistance, up about 252,000 jobs.

Education and training added about 121,000 regional jobs. Construction added about 111,000. Public administration and safety added 83,000. Professional, scientific and technical services added 44,000. Mining added 30,000. 

This is not the old postcard version of regional Australia. 

When we say “regional jobs”, people still picture farms, mines and motels. Those sectors matter, of course, but the big regional employment story is the growth of foundational services. Healthcare, education, construction and public administration dominate the gains. 

That means regional Australia is increasingly pulled along by population-serving work. People move to regions for lifestyle, affordability and family reasons. Once they arrive, they need doctors, nurses, teachers, childcare workers, tradies, council staff, disability workers, aged-care workers, police, public servants and builders.

Jobs follow people. Then those jobs attract more people. The migration story becomes circular. 

The regional health boom is especially important. A region without health services struggles to attract retirees, young families and workers with complex needs.

A region with a growing hospital, allied health network and aged-care sector becomes much more liveable. Healthcare is not just an industry. It is population infrastructure. 

Education works the same way. Families do not only ask whether they can buy a house in a regional town. They ask whether their kids can get a decent education there.

Teachers and training providers are therefore not just workers in the regional economy. They are enablers of regional growth. 

Construction is the physical expression of this population shift. Regional Australia added more than 100,000 construction jobs over the decade.

That is the labour market trying to turn migration pressure into dwellings, roads, schools, clinics and commercial space. When construction cannot keep up, the regional dream becomes a rental crisis. 

Small regional housing markets only need a bit of additional population growth to see housing costs escalate. 

The industries that shrank also tell a story. 

In regional Australia, agriculture, forestry and fishing lost about 31,000 jobs. Wholesale trade lost about 28,000. Transport, postal and warehousing lost about 22,000. Information media and telecommunications also fell. 

This does not mean regional Australia is in decline. It means regional economies are changing. Agriculture can produce more with fewer workers.

Supply chains consolidate. Technology removes some jobs while creating others. The old regional employment base becomes leaner, while health, education, construction and public services become more important. 

In the cities, the biggest losses were wholesale trade, down about 43,000 jobs, and information media and telecommunications, down about 21,000. Manufacturing barely moved. Agriculture was tiny to begin with. 

The city economy is not immune to disruption either. But its advantage is diversity. If one sector weakens, another often absorbs workers.

A young person moving to a capital city is partly buying insurance against uncertainty. The job they get at 23 might disappear by 30, but the city offers alternatives. 

Cities are still the stronger job machines. Regions are becoming stronger life-stage machines. 

That distinction matters. A young graduate might still need Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Perth. A nurse, teacher, tradie, aged-care worker, police officer or public servant might now find strong demand in regional Australia too.

A professional services worker with hybrid work might keep a metro income while living a regional lifestyle. A young family might accept a narrower labour market in exchange for a backyard, grandparents and a lower mortgage. 

Regional towns are hungry for workers. To attract workers, these towns must put themselves in the shoes of the Australian workforce and ask what they can offer to people at different stages of the life cycle.  

 At 20, the calling of the big city is almost irresistible. 

At 35, the region offers young families a chance to build a life. 

At 65, fresh-faced retirees can finally make their housing decisions without considering their place of work – off to the region we go.  

In later life, access to health services eventually dominate the decision-making and the health precinct in the big cities look awfully attractive. 

While we often move for work, life stage factors are crucial too. We move for love. We move for space. We move for care. We move because the place that suited our last decade does not necessarily suit the next one. 

Migration is not just the movement of people across a map. It is the map adjusting to the lives people are trying to build. 

Simon Kuestenmacher is a co-founder of The Demographics Group. His columns, media commentary and public speaking focus on current socio-demographic trends and how these impact Australia. His podcast, Demographics Decoded, explores the world through the demographic lens. Follow Simon on Twitter (X), Facebook, or LinkedIn.