Research shows Aussie's still love pools as ownership rate edges higher
It’s been three years since the previous Roy Morgan survey into Australian pool ownership, and according to their statistics, Australians are even more in love with pools now than they were in early 2015. There was a little confusion about the data back in 2015, but Roy Morgan clarified it to identify their estimate of total numbers of pools at 920,000. Their new data based on their metric of 2.5 people per household places it at just under 1.1 million pools, closer to the general industry estimate of 1.2 million plus.
However accurate the total numbers are, the figures shows an increase in pool ownership overall.
The latest data shows that swimming pool ownership in Australia has increased from 12 per cent to 13 per cent, which translates to nearly 2.7 million Australians living in a house with a swimming pool – up from 2.3 million in 2015.
Regional Queensland, which includes the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, and a string of regional cities up the Queensland coast such as Bundaberg, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns, leads the nation. Twenty percent of regional Queenslanders live in a house with a swimming pool.
Behind regional Queensland are Perth (19 per cent), Brisbane (18 per cent) and Sydney (15 per cent) which are all above the national rate of swimming pool ownership, and are also Australia’s three most northerly state capitals.
Swimming pool ownership is below the national average in other parts of Australia. Nine per cent of residents of Melbourne and Adelaide have a swimming pool and in Australia’s most southerly capital city of Hobart only four per cent of the locals have a swimming pool – unchanged on the previous data.
Michele Levine, chief executive officer of Roy Morgan, says that besides a warmer climate there are other factors that determine whether someone will own a swimming pool.
“These include socio-economic factors and also the presence of children in the house. Over 17 per cent of Australians with kids aged six to 11 have a pool at home (up two per cent on four years ago), a figure that jumps to just over 23 per cent (up three per cent) for homes with older children (12-15 years).
Roy Morgan ran the data through its Helix Personas consumer segmentation and data integration tool to classify the Australian population into 54 Personas and six Communities.
“This reveals that Australians in the Leading Lifestyles and Hearth and Home communities are the most likely to own a swimming pool,” she says. “In fact nearly a third of Australians classified as part of the 107 Domestic Bliss Persona (part of the Leading Lifestyles community) own a swimming pool – the highest of any Persona.”
Category split
Leading Lifestyles is classified as: High income, highly educated, progressive and success and career focused, people in the Leading Lifestyles Community enjoy cultured city living to the max.
Hearth and Home is classified as: Closest to the average Australian, life revolves around the home for these contented families and empty nesters, who see their homes as an expression of status and achievements.
Least likely to own a swimming pool are those in the Metrotechs (seven per cent) and Doing Fine (seven per cent) communities. Of the top ten Helix Personas most likely to own a swimming pool, seven are from the Leading Lifestyles community and three are from the Hearth and Home community.
The most likely Helix Persona to own a swimming pool is 107 Domestic Bliss of which a high 31 seven per cent own a swimming pool. Australians in 107 Domestic Bliss are culturally diverse. Just under half were born overseas, with a significant proportion hailing from Asia, along with a smaller proportion born in Europe. There are many mid-life householders among them, along with mid-life families and older households, living predominantly in the suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne.
