National Institute of Economic and Industry Research
If the reader is not familiar with Australia’s annual State of the Regions reports (SORs), the reports divide Australia into 67 regions, describing each of these as well as benchmarking regions with each other in terms of their economic performance across a series of key economic indicators. Various agglomerations of these regions are also analysed and include a series of seven region types, which display similar characteristics in terms of their economic structure and development, each region type distinct from the other. Each of the annual SORs provide data for each region and more recently, each region type.
The analysis provided in the SORs gives important insights for all levels of government and for industry about how we understand Australia’s regions and build their economic futures. What are the risks, where are the opportunities and so on?
In this analysis we describe an overview of the SOR’s 67 regions and their export performance.
In 2024, international exports accounted for 35 per cent of total export sales, while interregional sales constituted 65 per cent. The distribution of international exports was notably uneven across Australia’s 67 regions.
Only 18 regions recorded international export shares exceeding the national average; in 8 of these, international exports accounted for over 50 per cent of total export sales.
Western Australia (WA) led with 7 highly exporting regions, followed by Queensland (5), New South Wales (4), and one region each in South Australia (SA) and the Northern Territory (NT). Victoria and Tasmania did not have any regions surpassing the national average in this measure.
International exports were of limited significance to metropolitan regions such as Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, and Adelaide, while moderately relevant in Brisbane and near-average in Perth. This geographic distribution closely correlates with the mining sector’s predominance in Australia’s export profile; mining’s share of total export sales increased from 41 per cent in 2004 to 60 per cent in 2021 and softened to 54 per cent in 2023. It might be sensible to build knowledge economy exports, including international education, to diversify risk in Australia’s export economy.
Intra-regional sales in 2024 were the dominant component in twelve regions, each recording over 75 per cent of total sales within their own boundaries. An additional thirteen regions reported intra- regional sales between 71 and 74 per cent of their total. Of these predominantly low-export regions:
Metropolitan and metropolitan-periphery regions not in this low-export cohort typically possessed sizable export operations concentrated in manufacturing/wholesaling and transport sectors.
Coastal metropolitan suburbs were more likely than their inland counterparts to experience a decline in manufacturing/logistics activity, transitioning into low-export zones.
On the urban fringes, regions with strong manufacturing or mining bases, such as Newcastle, Wollongong, Gippsland, and Southwest WA, continued to maintain substantial export components. Geelong, however, no longer fits this profile due to sectoral declines following economic reforms.
The region with the lowest export ratio in 2024 was Sydney South East, with exports accounting for just 15 per cent of total sales. Other regions where exports comprised less than 25 per cent of sales included: NSW Central Coast, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Sydney North, Sydney Highlands, Melbourne Inner North, Melbourne Inner East, Perth Outer North, Geelong, and NSW Mid-North Coast. These are predominantly affluent suburbs and metropolitan periphery regions.
All the annual SORs, covering the period 1998 to 2025, can be downloaded free of charge from the NIEIR website as NIEIR’s contribution to the public good. In 2025, there are two SOR reports, the main report and a smaller report that ranks the SORs 67 regions. The latest reports were published in November 2025.
