Hobart is a city that is on the move.
In the 2020 and 2021 financial years, Tasmania was Australia's best performing economy, with Hobart continuing to play its role as the engine room of the state's overall growth.
The City of Hobart is working to build on this strong foundation, and to generate further positive change for our island state's capital.
As part of this work, The City has today launched two new assets that will help prepare and position Hobart for the future: the State of the City, and the Invest Hobart reports.
Both assets were launched during of the City's inaugural State of the City event, which was attended by many of Hobart's key stakeholders.
The State of the City reporting brings together a range of data and information into a rich evidence base that will support the city to make well-informed decisions.
The reporting will be focused on three key themes – our people, our economy, and our environment – and will be regularly updated with new data as it becomes available.
The State of the City reporting will also soon be made available as an online dashboard so that it can be used by everyone in the Hobart community.
Speaking at this morning's event, Hobart CEO Kelly Grigsby said the State of the City reporting would play an important role in helping Hobart navigate challenges and maximise opportunities.
"It is critical that our future planning is informed by complete, accurate, and timely data," Ms Grigsby said.
"In our current set of data, for example, we can see that Hobart's population with a bachelor or higher degree qualification has grown by 10 per cent in the past five years, which highlights the importance of our knowledge economy and attracting more jobs focused on science, research, innovation and sustainability."
Other important and interesting insights in the initial State of the City data include:
• a continued increase in Hobart's diversity, with 28 per cent of our residents born overseas and 21 per cent speaking a language other than English at home;
• a city that is getting younger, with the 25–34-year age group rising from 15 per cent in 2016 to nearly 20 per cent in 2021, and Hobart's median age reducing from 39 in 2016 to 37 in 2021; and
• a strong and growing development sector, with more than $300 million in development value created in the city in 2021-2022.
The Invest Hobart report – also launched at today's event – aims to drive positive inbound investment into Hobart.
The report provides prospective investors with an understanding of our city's natural strengths, and identifies opportunities to partner with and leverage Hobart's position as a vibrant, liveable and connected global city.
Director of Connected City at the City of Hobart, Jacqui Allen, said the report would aim to build on the city's already strong economy and level of business confidence, which includes a recent 10 per cent growth in locally registered businesses and a 12 per cent increase in gross value of production.
"We are a destination that is looking to attract investment that supports the Hobart community by driving economic growth and resilience to support existing and emerging sectors," Ms Allen said.
"We have some great stories to entice investment to our city."
Acting Lord Mayor Cr. Burnet said: "It is great to have access to these new assets, which will help the city work more effectively with our partners, and to maximise opportunities for increased community wellbeing and economic growth.
"Using these and other tools, the City of Hobart will remain focussed on addressing our city's key challenges and maintaining our support for all sectors of our community as we continue to grow and change."
