Toowoomba's Carnival of Flowers is always a family-friendly event. Source: Supplied
TOOWOOMBA and Mackay are among the nation's top 10 family-friendly cities to live despite Brisbane missing out, a new report has found.
The latest Suncorp Bank Family Friendly City report, released today, found Queensland has some of the best places to live in the country thanks to low employment levels and good schools.
Brisbane was ranked as the sixth-best city to live when it comes to income levels and it also made the top 10 for road safety and health.
Wagga Wagga in NSW took out the nation's number one spot for families to live, boasting better employment levels and safety in the city and on its roads.
The report, which analysed 30 of the nation's most-populated cities, ranked them across nine indicators including education, income, unemployment and mortgage stress.
Suncorp Bank's general manager Russell Harrison said the findings proved that having a happy medium between work and life was far more achievable in regional cities.
"When the city can offer both the work-life balance and give you an equivalent of a high-paying job it's a good place to bring up a family,'' he said.
"If you are feeling safe at night, you are on an equivalent income (to the city) and you've only got five minutes to go to work it makes for a less stressful life from a family perspective.
"Six of the top 10 are regional cities and four of our nation's capitals are featured.''
Sydney was ranked the nation's most family-friendly capital city (5th), followed by Hobart (6th) and Melbourne (9th).
Social analyst David Chalke said it was no surprise regional cities were such desirable places to live for Australian families.
"So many of the problems that plague the capital cities include congestion, house prices and pockets of disadvantaged areas - you tend not to get those in the regional centres,'' he said.
"When you sit back and think about it regional cities are quite nice places to raise kids.
"They've got family housing and somewhere where there's a backyard and somewhere for the kids to splash about in the pool and play cricket.''
Mr Chalke said the "tree-change phenomenon" had long been a desire of many Australian families.
"Older people and even younger people are moving into the regional areas and we forget quite often that although the capital cities have 70 per cent of the population, of the remainder, the bulk of them are in regional cities and not in the bush,'' he said
TOP 10 FAMILY FRIENDLY CITIES
1. Wagga Wagga (NSW)
2. Canberra (ACT)
3. Albury-Wodonga (NSW/Vic)
4. Toowoomba (Qld)
5. Sydney (NSW)
6. Hobart (Tas)
7. Ballarat (Vic)
8. Bendigo (Vic)
9. Melbourne (Vic)
10. Mackay (Qld)
Source: Suncorp Bank's annual Family Friendly City Index
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