Sutherland Shire residents have always known it, and now it is official. The shire is one of the best places in Australia to live.
The shire ranked second in a report listing the most liveable metropolitan areas of Australia.
The findings, by international market research company Ipsos, were in a new report "Life in Australia 2020, Understanding liveability across metropolitan Australia".
Data was drawn from the largest annual study of community values and liveability.
Ipsos asked 14,010 Australians to select the top five attributes they believed makes somewhere a good place to live. They were also asked to rate how well their local area performed on a scale of 0 to 10 across 16 liveability attributes.
The shire recorded above average marks in all but four of the 16 'liveability attributes'.
The most and least liveable areas were then chosen using a liveability index between 0 and 100. The index was created by multiplying each attribute's importance by how well Australians rate its performance in their local area.
According to the report's authors, the top five attributes that make somewhere a good place to live are feeling safe, affordable decent housing, high-quality health services, reliable and efficient public transport, and access to the natural environment.
A total of 42 metropolitan areas were examined before Sutherland Shire recorded an index of 71.2 - making it the second most liveable metropolitan area in Australia.
It was narrowly beaten by Adelaide central and hills, which recorded an index of 71.5, but ranked ahead of Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne.
The poorest performing areas included Sydney's south west and Blacktown, Logan and Ipswich in Queensland and Melbourne's north-west suburbs.
Sutherland Shire mayor Steve Simpson said the ranking came as "no surprise to me or any of the more than 230,000 people who call the Sutherland Shire home".
"We enjoy an incredible quality of life, stunning natural surrounds, a vibrant and diverse local business community and a warm and welcoming community spirit that you just can't replicate," councillor Simpson said.
"Adelaide edged ahead of us with a higher result for cultural offerings, such as museums, galleries and festivals, but with significant upgrades set to be delivered for two of our much loved performing arts spaces we continue to invest in the future of our local arts sector.
"The major redevelopment of the Sutherland Entertainment Centre and a significant upgrade of the Sutherland Memorial School of Arts means we will soon have the capacity to host an even greater variety of quality theatre and entertainment offerings for local residents and visitors to the region."
And he warned Adelaide to "look out" next year.
"We've got the top spot in our sights for next time," he said.
The shire recorded above average marks in all but four of the 16 'liveability attributes'. The areas where we ranked above average include:
Feeling safe
High-quality health services
Reliable and efficient public transport
Access to the natural environment
Good job prospects
Shopping, leisure and dining
To and from services with relative ease
A strong sense of community
High-quality education opportunities
A prosperous economy
Viewing and participating in sports and recreation
Where we fell short
Affordable decent housing
Social cohesion
A lack of road congestion
Museums, galleries and festivals
