The Leichhardt Local Government Area (LGA) lies immediately west of the City of Sydney and covers the suburbs of Annandale, Birchgrove, Balmain, East Balmain, Lilyfield, Leichhardt and Rozelle with a population of 52,197 measured by the Census of Population and Housing 2011.
The estimated resident population for 2011 is 55, 651 (as published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and NSW Department of Planning September 2012).
Leichhardt before European settlement was home to the Gadigal and Wangal people.
The current LGA was mainly built in the late nineteenth century, and still retains much of the Victorian housing, that is, medium-density terraces and cottages. It also retains much of the transport and land-use patterns from this era, with narrow roads winding between residential and business premises.
The Leichhardt community is characterised by its young, prosperous community with a significant increase in the numbers of children. The two major groups in the community are:
- the baby-boomer, typically long-term resident home-owners in their fifties, and
- the younger Gen X city-workers who remain in the inner west to riase families. In recent periods this age group left the area to raise their families in larger properties.
Over the last two decades the Leichhardt Local Government Area has become one of the most prosperous communities in Australia measured by the Socio-Economic Index of areas however within the LGA pockets of high need and housing stress exist.