And doesn't lifelong Junee resident Billy Hackett know it.

"You don't get Junee women because nearly everybody is related ... so you've got to be very careful about who you meet," the 63-year-old divorcee says.

"I went out of town and married a girl from Victoria and a lot of the younger blokes go to Coota, Temora and Wagga to find girls."

Hackett wouldn't be the only man feeling the shortage of women in Junee.

In addition to an award-winning chocolate and liquorice factory, this Riverina town boasts 133.4 men per 100 women – the state's highest ratio of men to women (what demographers call the "sex ratio").

But before you pack your bags, ladies, it's probably worth mentioning the likely reason for this gender imbalance: Junee's all-male correctional centre. It's the largest prison in regional NSW.

Junee's abundance of men is one of hundreds of statistical quirks captured in the annual National Regional Profile, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics this week.

From the shire with the most campervans to the community where women give birth at four times the national rate, this is a glimpse of "the Lucky Country" you won't find in tourist brochures.

Worst women drought

If the men of Junee think it's tough to meet a women, they might spare a thought for the men of Wiluna, in Western Australia. In this mining town poised at the edge of the Western Desert, about 950 kilometres north-east of Perth, there are a mighty 270.7 men per 100 women.

In fact, Australia's sex ratio is weighted in the opposite direction: nearly 99,000 more women than men live here. Although more boys are born than girls both globally and nationally (about 105 boys per 100 girls), higher mortality rates among young men and women's longer life expectancy mean that, from the age of 26, women outnumber men in Australia.

Occupational shifts and differences in the way men and women transition to adulthood explain why regional Australia tends to have more clusters of men than women, said Martin Bell, professor of human geography and director of the University of Queensland's Centre for Population Research.

"Young women tend to leave rural and farming areas to seek education and fortune in the city more than men do," he said. This leaves higher proportions of working age men in mining or agricultural areas.

Boys engage in risk-taking behaviour more than girls, while men in their late teens and early 20s are far more likely to die on the roads than their female peers. Maternal mortality has also fallen substantially, increasing young women's odds of survival.

"Accidents and injuries are killing men off at a faster rate at younger ages," Professor Bell said.

"Men also tend to be involved in difficult, dirty and dangerous jobs … that are much more prone to occupational mortality. That doesn't necessarily mean dying at work, but also contracting diseases that increase their risk of death."

Worst men drought

Since women don't tend to cluster in the same way men do, the gender disparity weighted towards women is less stark. Nonetheless, if the men of Wiluna or Junee are looking to improve their odds of meeting a woman, they might consider heading to Peppermint Grove, Perth, where there are only 82.7 men per 100 women.

Dubbed the "Monaco of WA" by Premier Colin Barnett, Peppermint Grove is Australia's most advantaged local government area, according to the latest ABS index. The average wage in this waterfront location is nearly $93,600, nearly twice the national average ($52,000).

Peppermint Grove is "a bit of a blip" on the demographic radar, says Curtin University demographer Amanda Davies.

"You don't have a young population moving in there, which would tend to even out that demographic profile, so what we could be seeing is more older women living in that suburb," she said.

Where kids are king

Children rule the roost in the Indigenous community of Doomadgee (36.3 per cent), near the Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland. Here, children under 15 make up more than one in three residents (36.3 per cent), compared with one in five nationally.

Queensland is also home to Australia's youngest local government areas, Cherbourg in the state's south-east and Yarrabah in the north-east, both with a median age of just 22.5, nearly 15 years younger than the national median of 37.3 years. Both areas are also Australia's most disadvantaged local government areas, which is no coincidence, Professor Bell said.

Larger family sizes and higher fertility are closely linked to disadvantage. "Even in the non-Indigenous population, it's people who have lower levels of education, who marry earlier and who live in areas with relatively high unemployment and higher proportions of … blue collar jobs, who tend to be disadvantaged economically," he said.

Where old is gold

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the seaside resort town of Victor Harbor, South Australia, is Australia's oldest local government area, with a median age of 56.9. More than one in three residents (36.5 per cent) are older than 65.

Most campervans

On the subject of older folk (the connection will become clear in a moment), Nungarin, about 280 kilometres east of Perth, is the nation's campervan capital, with 26.3 campervans per 1000 residents. To put that figure in context, Nungarin has a population of 228, so we're not exactly talking about a flotilla of campervans. Nonetheless, it's impressive that Nungarin has twice as many campervans as men in their 20s (six campervans versus three men aged 20-29).

Nungarin Shire's senior administration officer, Kerry Thorniley, says her campervan is loved and used by the whole family. "It's like camping but you've got a nice soft bed to sleep in," she said.

Dr Davies said campervans were emblematic of the ageing rural population as well as Australia's "grey nomads" - the phrase used to describe retired Baby Boomers who spend their time travelling the country in mobile homes.

This concept of "leisure-oriented retirement ... is unique to the Baby Boomer population", which enjoys an unprecedented level of wealth compared to earlier generations, she said.

"So campervans are quite a good indicator, really, of what's unfolding in that generation."

Most deaths

Halls Creek, in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia's north-east, has the country's highest death rate. At 16.4 deaths per 1000, the people of this roadhouse town (eight in 10 of whom are Indigenous) die at three times the rate of other Australians. It is the state's most disadvantaged local government area, and has long been associated with poor health, particularly depression and alcoholism, domestic violence and assault.

"What it's showing us with certainty is that there are major inequalities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia," Dr Davies said.

"These people are also living in rural areas where access to employment, healthcare and education are lower. You have a compounding effect."

But there are stirrings of change in Halls Creek. Domestic violence, assault and alcohol-related emergency department presentations have plummetted since alcohol restrictions were introduced in 2009, according to a West Australian Drug and Alcohol office report, released in February.

Most births

On the other side of Western Australia, about 2500 kilometres from Halls Creek, lies the country's most fertile local government area. Mukinbudin's birth rate is quadruple the national average (7.7 births per woman, compared with 1.9 nationally).

Dr Davies said the area's domestic migration figures suggest the community is not only retaining but also attracting young families.

"Agriculture remains the largest employment sector but the development of mining activities in the region that are drive-in, drive-out certainly would have attracted younger families." she said.

The high fertility rate may also be linked to a larger than usual Indigenous population. Indigenous women tend to have more children (2.3 births per woman) and have them at younger ages than non-Indigenous women.

"The age at which you start childbearing is a very strong predictor of how many children you ultimately have," Professor Bell said.

Coincidentally (or not), Mukinbudin is also home to the most motorcycles per person, with 102 motorcycles per 1000. (Motorbikes. Babies. Makes sense.)

Most cramped

If there's one thing Sydney offers that no other Australian region does, it's that sense of being close to your neighbours. Nine of the 10 most densely populated local government areas in Australia are in greater Sydney, with the Waverley local government area, home of the iconic Bondi Beach, ranked number one with a population density of 7650 people per square kilometre.

Nationally, Australia has three people per square kilometre.

Long-term unemployed

More than nine in 10 people on Newstart unemployment benefits in the Western Australian shire of Upper Gascoyne have been receiving this support for more than a year, according to ABS figures.

To put that in context, only 262 people live there, so that's 27 out of the 29 people on Newstart. Statistically, we wouldn't take much from it, but outlying indicators like this are "significant for the people who are there", Dr Davies said.

"It's an indicator … of what life is like for people there. It's very bleak," she said.

Mining has generated significant jobs growth in the Gascoyne region. However, many have gone to fly-in, fly-out workers, which also explains why Upper Gascoyne also had the highest proportion of residents (one in three) move to the area in the past year, according to the latest census figures.

"You would have expected the area's large employment growth to have flowed on," Dr Davies said, but this suggests the local Indigenous population haven't reaped the full benefit of mining in their region. 

Most bankruptcies

Tourism brochures might tell you the Gold Coast is famous for fun, but this mecca of surf and sun also claims the dubious honour of the highest number of bankruptcies, with 1320 business and non-business bankruptcies declared in 2013.

High unemployment, plummeting property values and tough lending conditions have all played a role in sending businesses and residents bust, according to Insolvency Guardian managing partner Jarrod Sierocki.

"It's very, very hard to borrow in Queensland especially, so I think a lot of businesses are just feeling the pinch," he said.

"People are mortgaged to the hilt. Property values have dropped by more than 40 per cent in the past five years, so the equity position they had in 2009 is certainly not what it is today.

"As a result, they can't keep up with their repayments, businesses are failing, employees are losing their jobs and, unfortunately, they're stuck ... because they can't sell their properties."

With Brodie Owen, The Daily Advertiser