Melbourne 2002–2023: How many businesses are open, how many premises sit empty and where activity grew or declined.

Priyanshu Jain (s4139297)

28 Oct 2025

Title

Melbourne 2002–2023: How many businesses are open, how many premises sit empty and where activity grew or declined.

Data: City of Melbourne CLUE (Business Establishments: Location and Industry Classification, 2002–2023).

City-wide trend

Vacancy % = Vacant Space ÷ (Open + Vacant Space), by CLUE census year. Definitions: Open businesses = non-vacant premises in CLUE; Empty premises = CLUE “Vacant Space”.

Where activity sits now

Neighbourhoods = CLUE small areas (e.g., Melbourne CBD, Docklands, Carlton, Southbank). Values reflect premises with an operating business at census time.

Where activity shifted

Change shown between 2002 and 2023. Increases/decreases reflect development and commercial use patterns as well as business churn.

References

City of Melbourne. (2024). Business establishments: Location and industry classification (CLUE), 2002–2023 Data set: City of Melbourne Open Data. https://data.melbourne.vic.gov.au/api/v2/catalog/datasets/business-establishments-with-address-and-industry-classification/exports/csv?delimiter=%2C