Our newest citizens are choosing to settle down mostly in Wendouree, along with Central Ballarat, Lake Gardens and Mount Helen.

And the new residents are mostly young families and retirees.

The findings are the results of research carried out by the City of Ballarat's economic development unit.

The research also revealed 50 per cent of Ballarat's new residents are relocating from Melbourne, followed by Geelong and Bendigo, and other regional areas.

It shows residents from Malvern, Bentleigh, Ringwood, Mitcham, Hawthorn and Glen Iris are the main Melbourne residents uprooting for a new life in Ballarat.

The research also found 31 per cent of residents moving from interstate to Ballarat were from New South Wales, 26 per cent were from Queensland and 19 per cent were from South Australia.

Economic Development manager David Keenan said the results were a surprise.

"We were under the belief that the majority were coming from the west and the north suburbs of Melbourne," he said.

"The south eastern and bayside suburbs are a demographic that we had not been expecting.

"There's the possibility that those people have made some money out of selling houses in those areas and may have found Ballarat to be an affordable area to live."

Mr Keenan said during the past two years 1120 people had taken up the City's My Choice for Living incentives package, which offers discounts on products and services from more than 100 local businesses.

"That's not the true number of new residents attracted to Ballarat, that's the number of people who have taken up the My Choice for Living initiative," he said.

"We have a competitive advantage due to the analysis of the information that comes out of the My Choice for Living initiative.

"We'd be happy to see other municipalities take up the model," he said.

"Then we could compare our findings with other municipalities to determine similarities and differences."