Australians commute an average distance of 16km everyday, according to the recent 2016 Census data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). 

According to the ABS, men travel an average distance of 17.7km and women 14.2km. Male travel times were longer due to longer average travel distance occupations shared by males. 

“Technicians and trade workers travelled an average of 18.2km to get to work, Machinery operators travelled 21.1km, and the grand champions of long journeys to work were by people in the mining industry, who averaged 40.3km,” Director of Census Dissemination, Phillip Wise said. 

In addition, the data revealed that people’s income rises along with the rise of the average commuting distance. 

Australians with a weekly income of $2,000-$2,999 were travelling the longest average distance to work at 20km. Comparatively, Australians with the lowest weekly income of $1-$149 travelled the shortest average distance to work at 9.6km. 

Moreover, Sydney was among the top cities with the shortest average distance times. 

“Australia’s largest capital cities had longer commuting distances than the smaller capitals. Residents in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane all averaged about 15km, while those living in the Australian Capital Territory had the shortest average commutes at 11.7km,” Mr Wise said. 

“Workers outside of the state capital cities generally had longer average commutes when compared to their corresponding cities, while commuting distances also tended to increase the further a region was from a central business district or major town hub,” he added. 

Further, Sydney had the highest rate of workers travelling by public transport at 27 per cent.