THE FAIRFIELD COMMUNITY
​
Fairfield is regarded as one of Australia's most dynamic multicultural neighborhoods, with a population of approximately 18,000 people. It also has the largest gaming losses in the country, putting the community at risk of gambling addiction. As it affects the entire community, not just kids, it causes significant financial hardship and individual loss to individuals who are afflicted, including families. This has put the communities health in jeopardy, as gambling addiction leads to low self-esteem, mental health issues, and other problems.
Advocacy is one of the major ways this community can push for positive change - for example, signing petitions to show your support for gambling restrictions.
​
The below statistics from the 2016 Census, provides an interesting insight into the community.
​
​
Education
· 33.1% of people were attending an educational institution
· 11.9% obtained Bachelors degree or above
· 22.7% reported having completed Year 12 for aged 15 and over
(ABS Quick Stats 2016)
Employment
· 53.1% of the people were full-time workers
· 14.6% were unemployed
· 16.0% of the occupations were Labourers
· $396 is a individuals weekly wage
(ABS Quick Stats 2016)
Culture
· 11.9% of the ancestries were Assyrian, followed by 9.4% of Vietnamese
· 22.3% of people were born from Iraq
· 31.7% practiced Catholicism as a religion
·14.4% of the community spoke Assyrian-Neo Aramaic
(ABS Quick Stats 2016)​
Gambling
· Fairfield LGA has the highest levels of gambling losses in NSW (McNab 2015)
· High density of gambling Machines (McNab 2015)
· In 2016, $800 million was lost on EGMs in Fairfield (Bestman et al. 2018)
· $1.38million through poker machines (Department of Liquor and Gaming)
​​