Kadina, SA
By Lauren McCaleb · Reviewed by Dylan Duncan ·
Kadina is the largest town on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula, about 144 kilometres north-north-west of Adelaide. It stands on the traditional country of the Narungga people, and its name is thought to come from the Narungga word Kadiyinya, said to mean lizard plain. After copper was discovered at the nearby Wallaroo Mines in 1859, the town was surveyed in 1861 to house the miners, and with Moonta and Wallaroo it formed the Copper Triangle, an area so heavily settled by Cornish migrants that it became known as Little Cornwall. That heritage is still celebrated at the biennial Kernewek Lowender festival. Mining ended in 1938, and the district now lives by grain farming, its copper-era buildings preserved around the town centre.
Among Australia's less advantaged suburbs
Kadina is more socio-economically advantaged than about 12% of the 14,462 Australian suburbs we score, based on the ABS SEIFA index (raw score 901, where about 1000 is the national average).
A socio-economic measure from ABS Census data — not a measure of how good a suburb is to live in or visit. How we calculate this.
Is Kadina a good place to live?
There’s no single answer — it depends on what matters to you. So instead of one mystery number, we break it down: a transparent score on each part of life we can back with public data, and an honest “not yet” on the parts we can’t.
Lower on the data we score
A weighted blend of the 2 components we can score for Kadina from public data. It sits alongside — and reconciles with — the socio-economic Suburb Score above; it is a transparent read, not a complete verdict.
Socio-economic advantage
12/100Among Australia's less advantaged suburbs
Among Australia's less advantaged suburbs — the same ABS SEIFA-based Suburb Score (12/100) shown above. Income, education and occupation, as published by the ABS. · ABS SEIFA 2021
Housing affordability
63/100More affordable than the national median
Median weekly rent was $250 at the 2021 Census — more affordable than about 63% of suburbs we can compare. Housing data only, no valuations. · ABS Census 2021
Not yet scored
We’d rather leave these open than publish a number we can’t stand behind. Here’s where each one stands.
- Amenities & accessNot scored yet — our OpenStreetMap amenity mapping is still rolling out across suburbs.
- Green spaceNot scored yet — our OpenStreetMap green-space mapping is still rolling out across suburbs.
- TransportNot scored yet — our OpenStreetMap public-transport mapping is still rolling out across suburbs.
- SchoolsNot scored yet — school performance (ACARA / ICSEA) needs a data-reuse licence cleared before we can publish it.
- SafetyNot scored yet — Australia has no single open crime dataset and safety data carries defamation and legal care, so it is gated pending a go/no-go and will be data-only when added.
- CommunityNot scored yet — we won't reduce community to a number from a proxy. We'd rather leave it open than publish an invented value judgement.
A transparent read on public data, not a verdict — and not a measure of any person or community. See our methodology for how each component is worked out and why some aren’t scored yet.
Kadina at a glance
- Population (2021)
- 2,944
- Median age
- 49
- Median weekly household income
- $1,081
- SEIFA score
- 901
- Local government area
- Copper Coast
- Coordinates
- -33.9578, 137.7402
Map of Kadina
© OpenStreetMap contributors · View larger map
Housing & property in Kadina
What it costs to live in Kadina and how residents hold their homes, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census.
- Median rent
- $250
- per week
- Median mortgage
- $1,083
- per month
- Owner-occupied
- 68%
- of dwellings
- Rented
- 28%
- of dwellings
The full tenure and dwelling-type breakdown is in the Kadina demographics section below.
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021. © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. See our methodology.
Kadina demographics (2021 Census)
The figures below profile Kadina using the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census; every percentage is a share of a clearly stated Census count, so each one traces back to the source. At a glance, the largest age group is seniors (65+) at 30% and 8% of residents were born overseas.
Age profile
| Age group | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Children (0–14) | 470 | 16% |
| Youth (15–24) | 286 | 10% |
| Young adults (25–44) | 605 | 21% |
| Mid-life (45–64) | 712 | 24% |
| Seniors (65+) | 878 | 30% |
Share of the 2,951 people counted by age.
Housing and households
| Tenure | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Owned outright | 508 | 41% |
| Owned with a mortgage | 326 | 27% |
| Rented | 341 | 28% |
| Dwelling type | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | 1,116 | 90% |
| Townhouses & semis | 92 | 7% |
| Flats & apartments | 3 | 0% |
Tenure and dwelling shares are of the roughly 1,238 occupied private dwellings in Kadina.
- Average household size
- 2.2 people
- Median weekly family income
- $1,450
- Median weekly personal income
- $598
Community and culture
- Born overseas
- 211 (8%)
- Speaks a language other than English at home
- 56 (2%)
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
- 106 (4%)
Work and education
- Completed Year 12
- 844 (35%)
- Labour-force participation
- 48.6%
- Unemployment rate
- 6.1%
- Employed full-time
- 603
- Employed part-time
- 460
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021 (General Community Profile, by Suburb and Locality). © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. How we group bands and derive each share is set out on our methodology page.
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Common questions about Kadina
Is Kadina a good place to live?
There's no single answer, so we score what the public data can back. On socio-economic advantage and housing affordability, Kadina rates 29/100 overall (Lower on the data we score). Public transport, schools and safety aren't scored yet — see our methodology for why.
What is the median rent in Kadina?
At the 2021 Census, the median weekly rent in Kadina was $250, and the median monthly mortgage repayment was $1,083. These are official ABS Census figures — StreetScout publishes housing data only, with no property valuations or agent referrals.
Where is Kadina?
Kadina is a suburb of South Australia, Australia, in the Copper Coast local government area.
What is the population of Kadina?
At the 2021 Census, Kadina had a population of about 2,944.
Is Kadina an advantaged area?
Kadina has an ABS SEIFA score of 901, where about 1000 is the national average — higher scores indicate greater relative socio-economic advantage. That gives it a Suburb Score of 12 out of 100 — more socio-economically advantaged than about 12% of Australian suburbs.
Nearby suburbs in South Australia
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