Best councils for financial sustainability

Councils with the strongest financial sustainability scores — a proxy for low debt, healthy reserves and long-term resilience.

Councils are ranked within their own state and peer group, not against the country as a whole.

Ranked by Sustainability

  1. Western Downs Regional Council — QLD · medium · Sustainability: 96/100
  2. Burdekin Shire Council — QLD · small · Sustainability: 90/100
  3. Blackall-Tambo Regional Council — QLD · very-small · Sustainability: 88/100
  4. Bayside City — VIC · metro · Sustainability: 86/100 · composite 73/100
  5. McKinlay Shire Council — QLD · very-small · Sustainability: 86/100
  6. Inverell — NSW · regional · Sustainability: 84/100 · composite 60/100
  7. Pormpuraaw Aboriginal Shire Council — QLD · indigenous · Sustainability: 84/100
  8. Bland — NSW · regional · Sustainability: 80/100 · composite 74/100
  9. Monash City — VIC · metro · Sustainability: 79/100 · composite 67/100
  10. Manningham City — VIC · metro · Sustainability: 78/100 · composite 64/100
  11. Coolamon — NSW · rural · Sustainability: 78/100 · composite 56/100
  12. Moyne Shire — VIC · regional · Sustainability: 77/100 · composite 53/100
  13. Lockhart River Aboriginal Shire Council — QLD · indigenous · Sustainability: 76/100
  14. Lockyer Valley Regional Council — QLD · medium · Sustainability: 76/100
  15. Swan Hill Rural City — VIC · regional · Sustainability: 75/100 · composite 59/100
  16. Fraser Coast Regional Council — QLD · minimum-grant · Sustainability: 75/100
  17. Moira Shire — VIC · regional · Sustainability: 74/100 · composite 53/100
  18. Lane Cove — NSW · metro · Sustainability: 74/100 · composite 70/100
  19. Mackay Regional Council — QLD · minimum-grant · Sustainability: 74/100
  20. Alpine Shire — VIC · rural · Sustainability: 73/100 · composite 56/100
  21. Randwick — NSW · metro · Sustainability: 73/100 · composite 57/100
  22. Tweed — NSW · regional · Sustainability: 73/100 · composite 56/100
  23. Doomadgee Aboriginal Shire Council — QLD · indigenous · Sustainability: 73/100
  24. Towong Shire — VIC · rural · Sustainability: 72/100 · composite 52/100
  25. Temora — NSW · regional · Sustainability: 72/100 · composite 65/100

How we rank

Rankings are calculated from Council Scorer's four performance dimensions (Sustainability, Community Services, Lifestyle & Amenity, Core Operations), each derived from statutory data submitted to state and federal regulators. We compare within state and peer group so that metro, regional and rural councils are judged like-for-like. Read the full methodology.