AT A GLANCE
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Same sex couples around Victoria
East Central Highlands: 165 people, 0.44 per cent of the population.
Ballarat City: 74 people, 0.09 per cent of the population.
Inner Melbourne: 2773 people, 1.16 per cent of the population.
Greater Bendigo: 53 people, 0.07 per cent of the population.
Greater Geelong: 135 people, 0.21 per cent of the population.
THE East Central Highlands region of Victoria is home to the most gay and lesbian couples outside Sydney or Melbourne.
The 2001 Census shows that almost 0.45 per cent of residents in the spa country, which includes Daylesford, reported they were in a same-sex de facto relationship.
Sociologist Bob Birrell, of Monash University, has mapped where gay couples live around Australia.
He has found that they preferred to live in Australia's two main cities.
Gays and lesbians represent 2.24 per cent of the population in inner Sydney and 1.16 per cent in inner Melbourne.
Mr Birrell also found that gay and lesbian people made-up a very small percentage of the population in regional towns.
In Ballarat they made up 0.09 per cent of the population (74 people).
Similarly, in Bendigo they made up 0.07 per cent of the population (53 people).
However, the East Central Highlands region goes against this trend.
It boasts more same-sex residents than these major cities, even though it has a much smaller population.
Hepburn Shire Council CEO Victor Szwed said several factors may have made the region popular with the gay community.
Good restaurants, cafes, its close proximity to Melbourne and the cosmopolitan and diverse population of the region were some of them, he said.
"Compared to other country towns it is very vibrant, diverse and tolerant," Mr Szwed said.
"It's a cosmopolitan community, its facilities, restaurants, cafes, bookstores and healthy lifestyle image attracts a lot of people."
He said the council did nothing specific to attract the gay community to the region.
"They are just part of the community, just like other people in the community" he said.
"We don't have any special policies towards them."
Daylesford business operator and the former president of a well-known local gay event the Chill Out Festival, Chris Malden, said many gays and lesbians who wanted to move away from Melbourne's busy lifestyle saw the region as a great alternative lifestyle.
"A lot of people like to step back from it (Melbourne) and establish themselves with a quality lifestyle," he said.
"And Daylesford with its proximity to Melbourne, arts scene, good cafes and restaurants offers them that."
City of Ballarat Mayor David Vendy said Ballarat's low homosexual population reflected trends in most regional cities.
He said many minority groups felt more comfortable in big cities, where they could find more people with similar backgrounds.
However, he said the council was trying to make the city more appealing to minority groups.