It's perhaps the most Melbourne question ever after which footy team do you barrack for: Where did you go to school?
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In the leafy streets of Malvern, the state's highest proportion of students attend non-government secondary schools, with 93 per cent enrolled at independent and Catholic schools.
And an overwhelming majority of children from affluent Toorak (90 per cent), Armadale (90 per cent), Caulfield North (87 per cent) and Brighton (86 per cent) also attend non-government secondary schools.
These areas also have some of the highest independent primary school attendance in Australia.
A Fairfax Media analysis sheds light on school choice, revealing which education sector your neighbours are flocking to.
Enter your suburb name in our interactive, and it will show you the types of schools local students attend.
The analysis is based on 2016 census data and does not show enrolments at schools within suburbs. It also doesn't assume that children attend schools near their home.
We know that more than half of Victorian parents are now bypassing their local state school in favour of independent schools, Catholic schools and state schools that are further afield.
Poorer, outer suburban areas have the highest state secondary school attendance.
These include Dandenong (81 per cent) and Frankston, Kings Park and Carrum Downs (all 79 per cent).
While the cost of attending non-government schools drives many families towards state schools, Frankston High School principal John Albiston said parents in his area were increasingly choosing public education.
His school is zoned, and parents are renting and buying houses in the coveted area to secure a spot at the high-performing school. "It is a school of choice," he said.
The data highlights how a high-performing state school like the zoned McKinnon Secondary can win over parents.
In McKinnon, 74 per cent of students attend state secondary schools. This is far higher than the surrounding suburbs.
While most suburbs have a higher proportion of children attending government primary schools than non-government ones, some are bucking the trend.
In Airport West, Keilor East, Maribyrnong and Essendon, more children attend Catholic primary schools than government schools.
These areas are also home to some of Melbourne's largest Catholic communities.
Adrian Glasby, the principal of St Christopher's Primary School in Airport West, said parents were drawn to the school because of its strong NAPLAN results and Catholic values.
He said the school had a record 718 enrolments and there was now a waiting list.
"We're basically full," he said. "We could be bigger, but we need the capital funding from the government to build more facilities."
But while the majority of primary students in the inner west go to Catholic schools, they appear to migrate to state high schools.
For example, in Airport West, 56 per cent of primary school aged children go to Catholic primary schools, but 39 per cent go to Catholic secondary colleges.
Catholic Education Commission of Victoria director Stephen Elder said the shift to government secondary schooling was in line with past trends.
"Our own data shows that we have strong demand for secondaries in the growth areas but we do not have the capital funds to meet the demand," he said.
But the organised non-government sector is outpacing the government when it comes to building new schools in these sprawling growth corridors.
In the past decade, the private school sector has built 64 new schools compared to the government's 67 schools.
The population bulge in Melbourne's fast-growing suburbs is also apparent in the data.
In Point Cook and Truganina there were about two primary school-aged children for every secondary school-aged child.
When it comes to school choice, there's a "big income divide", according to Australian Institute of Family Studies director Anne Hollonds.
"The higher your income level, the more likely you are to see you have options and shop around," she said.
Research conducted by the institute last year found that students whose parents' income was in the top quarter were more than twice as likely to attend an independent school, compared to those whose parents' income was in the middle to upper middle range.
It also found that school choice was influenced by convenience, whether other relatives attended the school, religious or philosophical values and academic results.
"Parents are a lot more knowledgeable about the academic side since NAPLAN," Ms Hollonds said.
"We are more savvy...than when we didn't have that data and all you could do was ask your neighbours."
