The Wheatbelt region covers an area of 155 256 square kilometres. At the 2011 Census, the population of the region was approximately 74,000 people.
There are 43 local governments in the Wheatbelt region, which loosely surrounds the border of the metropolitan region, north to Jurien Bay, east to Southern Cross, and south to Darkan. With over a hundred separate settlements, population centres in the region are widely dispersed. Much of the region's residents live in rural areas remote from townsites, so provision of human services such as health and education are a particular challenge for the Wheatbelt.
Key infrastructure and planning initiatives, including the Muchea Industrial Park and the Indian Ocean Drive Guidelines, reflect a diversifying economic sector, shifting towards value-adding of primary industries, tourism and freight and logistic sectors.
Environmentally, the Wheatbelt has a diverse and fragile natural environment, ranging from including marine reserves, species-rich kwongan heathlands along the coast north of Perth, over to the forests and woodlands fringing Perth, across expansive broadacre agriculture land, and to the Great Western Woodlands in the east.
