Scone, NSW

By Lauren McCaleb · Reviewed by Dylan Duncan · Updated 31 May 2026

Scone is a town in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales, on the New England Highway about 271 kilometres north of Sydney and roughly 153 kilometres north-west of Newcastle, some 27 kilometres north of Muswellbrook. It is widely known as the Horse Capital of Australia, a centre of thoroughbred breeding whose calendar is anchored by the Scone Horse Festival each May and the Scone Cup race meeting. The explorer Allan Cunningham became the first European to reach the district in 1823, and the village of Redbank was established in 1826; the name Scone was proposed in 1831 and the town was gazetted under it in 1837. Today the surrounding country supports horse studs alongside dairies, vineyards and broader pastoral farming.

27/100

Suburb Score

Less advantaged than the national average

Scone is more socio-economically advantaged than about 27% of the 14,462 Australian suburbs we score, based on the ABS SEIFA index (raw score 944, 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.

Scone at a glance

Population (2021): 5,824
Median age: 39
Median weekly household income: $1,507
SEIFA score: 944
Coordinates: -32.0759, 150.8464

Scone demographics (2021 Census)

The figures below profile Scone 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 young adults (25–44) at 26%, 30% of homes are rented, and 12% of residents were born overseas.

Age profile

Age group	People	Share
Children (0–14)	1,145	20%
Youth (15–24)	606	10%
Young adults (25–44)	1,539	26%
Mid-life (45–64)	1,382	24%
Seniors (65+)	1,149	20%

Share of the 5,821 people counted by age.

Housing and households

Tenure	Dwellings	Share
Owned outright	720	31%
Owned with a mortgage	771	34%
Rented	695	30%

Dwelling type	Dwellings	Share
Houses	1,926	85%
Townhouses & semis	305	13%
Flats & apartments	32	1%

Tenure and dwelling shares are of the roughly 2,278 occupied private dwellings in Scone.

Median weekly rent: $290
Median monthly mortgage: $1,603
Average household size: 2.4 people
Median weekly family income: $2,056
Median weekly personal income: $802

Community and culture

Born overseas: 680 (12%)
Speaks a language other than English at home: 398 (7%)
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander: 408 (7%)

Work and education

Completed Year 12: 1,856 (42%)
Labour-force participation: 62.1%
Unemployment rate: 3.2%
Employed full-time: 1,853
Employed part-time: 812

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.

Common questions about Scone

Where is Scone?

Scone is a suburb of New South Wales, Australia.

What is the population of Scone?

At the 2021 Census, Scone had a population of about 5,824.

Is Scone an advantaged area?

Scone has an ABS SEIFA score of 944, where about 1000 is the national average — higher scores indicate greater relative socio-economic advantage. That gives it a Suburb Score of 27 out of 100 — more socio-economically advantaged than about 27% of Australian suburbs.