The Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) has released the results of the 2017 MAV Councillor Census.
The survey was previously conducted in 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2013 following local government elections.
Anonymous data was collected on gender, age, country of origin and ancestry, marital status, caring responsibilities, employment, working hours, education and qualifications, income, disability, years of councillor service and political party membership from 336 councillors across 79 councils.
MAV President, Councillor Mary Lalios, said that the MAV’s fifth councillor census helped to shed light on profiling the elected membership of Victorian councils.
“According to the census, the average councillor is male and aged over 46 years, married or living in a de facto relationship and self-employed or working in paid employment.
“Despite this, male and female councillors are equally represented in manager, director, teaching, business owner and CEO employment roles.
“Two-thirds of councillors are either working in paid employment or self-employed with the majority earning above $52,000 per year (excluding councillor allowances).
“And cultural diversity continues to flourish, despite having 86 per cent of councillors born in Australia. More than 30 per cent of councillors had one or more parents born overseas. This figure remains unchanged since our last census.
“2017 also saw the most representation of councillors with a disability since 2006, 2009 and 2013.
“Forty-four per cent of councillors are in their first term of office, remaining relatively stable to 2013 figures. The 2017 numbers decreased slightly for males and increased slightly for females.
“Sixty per cent of councillors spend 11 to 30 hours a week on councillor duties, in addition to other employment responsibilities. This is unchanged since our last two rounds of the census.”
The number of councillors who do not identify with a political party has risen from 12 to 30 per cent.
The full results of the 2017 MAV Councillor Census are available at www.mav.asn.au/
