Bittern is a suburb in Mornington Peninsula, Victoria (postcode 3918), located in the Mornington Peninsula region. At the ABS Census 2021 it had a population of 4,276 people.

At a glance

Population (2021)

4,276

Median age

Household income

$1,615/wk

Weekly rent

$366

Unemployment

3.3%

SEIFA IRSD decile

7 / 10

Age distribution

0-4

5.5%

5-14

11.6%

15-19

5.8%

20-24

4.7%

25-34

9.9%

35-44

10.7%

45-54

13.9%

55-64

14.8%

65-74

14.1%

75-84

7.8%

85+

1.4%

Housing tenure

Owned

41.5%

Mortgage

41.8%

Rented

12.1%

Other

3.4%

Key statistics

Indicator	Value
Postcode	3918
Population (2021)	4,276
Males	2,126 (49.7%)
Females	2,152 (50.3%)
Median age	46 years
Average household size	2.5
Median weekly household income	$1,615
Median weekly family income	$1,991
Median weekly rent	$366
Median monthly mortgage	$1,842
Labour force	2,105
Unemployment rate	3.3%
Participation rate	61.6%
Born overseas	15.9%
Separate houses	88.6%
Worked at home	15.1%
SEIFA IRSD decile	7 of 10
Bachelor degree or higher	29.4%
Completed Year 12 or equivalent	51.3%
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander residents	1.3%
Residents needing assistance with core activities	6.3%
Households with 2+ vehicles	68.2%
Distance from Melbourne CBD	61.3 km (straight line)

Age profile

Median age: 46 years. Residents under 15: 17.1%. Residents aged 65 and over: 23.3%.

Age group	People	Share of population
0-4	236	5.5%
5-14	496	11.6%
15-19	248	5.8%
20-24	199	4.7%
25-34	425	9.9%
35-44	456	10.7%
45-54	596	13.9%
55-64	632	14.8%
65-74	604	14.1%
75-84	334	7.8%
85 and over	59	1.4%

Households and families

Household type	Count	Share of households
Total households	1,617
Average household size	2.5
One person	368	22.8%
Two persons	607	37.5%
Three persons	239	14.8%
Four persons	263	16.3%
Five persons	100	6.2%
Six or more persons	37	2.3%

Family type	Count	Share of families
Total families	1,261
Couples with children	47	3.7%
Couples without children	587	46.6%
One-parent families	157	12.5%
Other families	8	0.6%

Children ever born

Measure	Value
Average children per woman aged 15+	1.77
Women with no children	24.7%
Women with three or more children	27.2%

Of the 510 couple families with children in Bittern, 12.5% are step or blended families.

Marital status

Marital status of residents aged 15 and over in Bittern.

Status	Share of adults
Married (registered marriage)	51.5%
Married (de facto)	14.0%
Not married	34.5%

Housing

Dwellings	Count	Share of dwellings
Total dwellings	1,708
Occupied	1,617	94.7%
Unoccupied	94	5.5%

Dwelling structure	Count	Share of dwellings
Separate house	1,513	88.6%
Semi-detached or townhouse	100	5.9%
Flat or apartment	3	0.2%
Other dwelling	0	0.0%

Tenure	Count	Share of households
Owned outright	671	41.5%
Owned with a mortgage	676	41.8%
Rented	196	12.1%
Other tenure	55	3.4%

Weekly rent

Rent band	Share of renting households
Under $350 per week	37.6%
$350 to $549 per week	60.0%
$550 or more per week	2.4%

2.9% of renting households rent through a state or community housing provider.

Monthly mortgage repayments

Repayment band	Share of mortgaged households
Under $1,000	18.6%
$1,000 to $1,799	29.2%
$1,800 to $2,999	36.9%
$3,000 or more	15.2%

Bedrooms per dwelling

Bedrooms	Share of dwellings
None or one bedroom	1.4%
Two bedrooms	20.0%
Three bedrooms	40.1%
Four or more bedrooms	38.6%

Employment

Labour force status	Count	Share
Labour force	2,105
Employed	2,031	96.5%
Unemployed	70	3.3%
Not in the labour force	1,314
Unemployment rate	3.3%
Participation rate	61.6%

41.5% of employed residents work part time, fewer than 35 hours per week.

Household income

Household incomes in Bittern are distributed across the following weekly bands.

Weekly household income	Share of households
Under $650	16.8%
$650 to $1,499	30.7%
$1,500 to $2,999	33.1%
$3,000 or more	19.4%

For residents aged 15 and over, personal weekly income is distributed as follows.

Weekly personal income	Share of residents 15+
Under $500	35.3%
$500 to $999	28.9%
$1,000 to $1,999	26.2%
$2,000 or more	9.6%

Travel to work

Method	Count	Share of workers
Car driver	1,286	63.3%
Car passenger	61	3.0%
Train	0	0.0%
Bus	0	0.0%
Tram	0	0.0%
Bicycle	7	0.3%
Walked only	20	1.0%
Worked at home	306	15.1%

Religious affiliation

Religion	Count	Share of residents
Christianity	1,634	38.2%
No religion	2,330	54.5%
Islam	0	0.0%
Hinduism	0	0.0%
Buddhism	19	0.4%
Judaism	6	0.1%
Other or not stated	287	6.7%

Socio-economic profile (SEIFA 2021)

SEIFA deciles run from 1 (most disadvantaged) to 10 (least disadvantaged) nationally.

Index	Score	Decile	Percentile
IRSD (disadvantage)	1038	7	65
IRSAD (advantage and disadvantage)	992	6
IER (economic resources)	1054	7
IEO (education and occupation)	964	5

Where residents were born

83.4% of residents were born in Australia and 16.6% were born overseas. The most common overseas birthplaces in Bittern are listed below.

Country of birth	People	Share of residents
England	357	8.6%
New Zealand	44	1.1%
Scotland	33	0.8%
Netherlands	32	0.8%
Germany	28	0.7%
South Africa	23	0.6%

When overseas-born residents arrived

Year of arrival	Share of overseas-born residents
2016 to 2021	1.6%
2011 to 2015	6.4%
2001 to 2010	13.8%
Before 2001	78.3%

Languages spoken at home

96.7% of residents speak only English at home. The most common other languages in Bittern are listed below. Across all households, 0.2% of residents speak English not well or not at all.

Language	People	Share of residents
German	17	0.4%
Greek	15	0.4%
Italian	11	0.3%
Spanish	9	0.2%
Polish	8	0.2%
Thai	8	0.2%

Ancestry

Residents of Bittern most commonly report the following ancestries.

Ancestry	Responses	Share of responses
English	2,075	35.1%
Australian	1,824	30.9%
Scottish	492	8.3%
Irish	482	8.2%
German	197	3.3%
Dutch	153	2.6%

Work and industry

The largest employment sectors for Bittern residents are listed below.

Industry of employment	Workers	Share of workers
Construction	332	17.1%
Health Care and Social Assistance	259	13.3%
Manufacturing	205	10.5%
Retail Trade	202	10.4%
Education and Training	173	8.9%
Public Administration and Safety	129	6.6%

The most common occupations among Bittern residents are listed below.

Occupation	Workers	Share of workers
Technicians and Trades Workers	427	21.4%
Professionals	311	15.6%
Community and Personal Service Workers	273	13.7%
Managers	237	11.9%
Labourers	220	11.0%
Clerical and Administrative Workers	218	10.9%

Education

Of residents attending an education institution in Bittern, 9.8% are at university or higher education, 11.3% are at TAFE or vocational education, and 75.5% are at school.

51.3% of residents aged 15 and over have completed Year 12 or equivalent.

The most common fields of study among Bittern residents with qualifications are listed below.

Field of study	People	Share
Engineering and Related Technologies	398	20.8%
Society and Culture	262	13.7%
Management and Commerce	259	13.6%
Health	255	13.4%
Education	223	11.7%
Architecture and Building	174	9.1%

Long-term health conditions

46.7% of residents report no long-term health condition. The most commonly reported conditions in Bittern are listed below.

Health condition	People	Share of residents
Arthritis	528	10.7%
Mental health condition (including depression or anxiety)	458	9.3%
Asthma	399	8.1%
Diabetes (excluding gestational diabetes)	216	4.4%
Heart disease (including heart attack or angina)	212	4.3%
Cancer (including remission)	210	4.3%
Lung condition (including COPD or emphysema)	89	1.8%
Stroke	46	0.9%
Kidney disease	46	0.9%
Dementia (including Alzheimer's)	20	0.4%

24.0% of residents report one condition, 8.9% report two, and 4.2% report three or more.

Community and care

How residents of Bittern contribute to their community (share of residents aged 15 and over).

Community activity	Share
Volunteers for an organisation or group	15.0%
Provides unpaid assistance to a person with a disability or health condition	15.2%
Provides unpaid child care	57.9%
Does 15 or more hours of unpaid domestic work	24.8%
Has served or is serving in the Australian Defence Force	4.9%

Moving and stability

Mobility	Share of residents
Same address 1 year ago	89.8%
Moved within Victoria in the last year	5.8%
Moved interstate in the last year	0.6%
Moved from overseas in the last year	0.2%
Same address 5 years ago	60.1%
Moved within Victoria in the last 5 years	23.4%
Moved interstate in the last 5 years	2.9%
Moved from overseas in the last 5 years	0.6%

Photo: Bittern, Victoria. Credit: ozzmosis ( talk ) / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Crime and safety

Victoria Police recorded 179 offences in Bittern in the 12 months to March 2026.

Offence division	Recorded offences
A Crimes against the person	31
B Property and deception offences	73
C Drug offences	11
D Public order and security offences	6
E Justice procedures offences	58
F Other offences	0

That is a calculated rate of 41.9 recorded offences per 1,000 residents, based on the ABS Census 2021 population. This rate was calculated by My Victoria AU and is not a Crime Statistics Agency figure.

For context, the Mornington Peninsula local government area recorded 6,718 offences per 100,000 residents in the same period. That figure is the official Crime Statistics Agency rate for the LGA.

Five-year trend

2022
90

2023
215

2024
120

2025
166

2026
179

Recorded offences count crimes reported to Victoria Police in this locality, not crimes committed by or against its residents. Areas with shopping centres, transport hubs, hospitals or entertainment precincts record more offences regardless of how safe they are for people who live there. Counts are revised as investigations progress.

Source: Crime Statistics Agency Victoria, Data tables - Recorded offences, Year ending March 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Rates per 1,000 residents are calculations by My Victoria AU using ABS Census 2021 population and are not CSA figures. View the source dataset.

Location

Nearby suburbs

Crib Point (2.8 km)
Hastings (4.6 km)
Somers (5.0 km)
Hmas Cerberus (5.2 km)
Balnarring (5.4 km)

Browse more suburbs in Mornington Peninsula, or explore the wider Mornington Peninsula region of Victoria.

Data disclaimer: The statistics on this page are sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Census of Population and Housing 2021 and SEIFA 2021 (ASGS Edition 3), and are used under the ABS CC BY 4.0 licence. This directory is an independent community resource and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the ABS.

Bittern

About

At a glance

Age distribution

Housing tenure

Key statistics

Age profile

Households and families

Children ever born

Marital status

Housing

Weekly rent

Monthly mortgage repayments

Bedrooms per dwelling

Employment

Household income

Travel to work

Religious affiliation

Socio-economic profile (SEIFA 2021)

Where residents were born

When overseas-born residents arrived

Languages spoken at home

Ancestry

Work and industry

Education

Long-term health conditions

Community and care

Moving and stability

Crime and safety

Five-year trend

Location

Nearby suburbs

Reviews

Location & Contact

Location

Contact

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