Ballarat Economy Reflects Service Strength Through Local Employment and Business Activity

Ballarat's Gross Regional Product reached $7.69 billion in 2022/23, up from $6.7 billion in 2019. This figure comes from data compiled across local economic reports and highlights the scale of activity in the city.

Population and Jobs Growth

The city's residential population stood at 118,137 in 2023 after a 9.78 per cent net increase from 2018 to 2023. At the same time, total jobs reached 62,005 in 2022/23, a 3.5 per cent rise from the prior year. Healthcare and Social Assistance accounted for 21.9 per cent of the workforce, the largest single sector. These numbers indicate how local services absorb workforce growth without relying on a single industry.

Export and Service Mix

Manufacturing remains the largest export earner at $3.3 billion, yet the overall economy draws strength from Health Care, Education, Retail, Construction and Manufacturing together. Ballarat recorded 9,952 registered businesses, a count that points to breadth across these areas. Median income sits at $49,697, with 36 per cent of the workforce holding a Bachelor-level qualification or higher. The combination supplies both output and skilled labour for day-to-day services.

Visitor Contribution

The visitor economy added more than four million visitors to the midwest Victoria region including Ballarat in the year to June 2024, producing $1.1 billion in spend. This flow supports retail, hospitality and related services that operate alongside the larger employment sectors already noted.

Local decisions on service delivery and business registration continue to shape how these sectors interact. Future updates to the same data sets will show whether the current pattern of sector diversity holds as population and visitor numbers move.