At the, Bruce had a population of 6,997 people. 54.4% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were China 12.0%, India 3.3%, England 2.1%, Philippines 1.7% and South Korea 1.5%. 58.5% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin 11.1%, Cantonese 2.5% and Korean 1.5%. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 41.5% and Catholic 17.2%. Although, as of the late 2000s, the mean taxable income of individuals within the suburb is slightly lower than the ACT average, the suburb nonetheless is in the top decile in the Territory within the Australian Bureau of Statistics' SEIFA index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage.
The Fern Hill section of the suburb was originally planned as a hub for information and communications technology businesses, with some low-rise office buildings being developed off Thynne Street, along with a small commercial centre including a cafe. However, the area has seen considerable residential development, with densities ranging from detached houses through to four storey apartment buildings, with commercial ground floor uses.
Street names
Many of the streets in Bruce are named after people and places associated with Australian tertiary education, including:
Funder Street – Kathleen Funder, writer, teacher, and educational psychologist
Jaeger Circuit – John Conrad Jaeger, professor of geophysics and mathematics
Leverrier Street – Frank Leverrier, vice-chancellor
Mugglestone Place – Donald Mugglestone, professor of physics
Purdie Street – Alexander Purdie, professor of geology
Thynne Street – Andrew Joseph Thynne, government minister and university chancellor and vice-chancellor
Transport
The suburb is also relatively well-served by public transport, with routes R2, R3 and R4 running through it via the Calvary Hospital, Radford College, and the University of Canberra. Route R9 connects the suburb to the Gunghalin light rail at Dickson. Additionally, a number of cycle routes provide links to the Inner North, Belconnen Town Centre, and Kaleen.
Bruce is dominated by the greywacke of the Ordovician Pittman Formation. Bands of the black Acton Shale Member are found under the University of Canberra and the Calvary Hospital. Glebe Farm Adamellite is a coarse porphyritic micro adamellite of the Silurian age. It intrudes in the west north and southeast and southwest of University of Canberra. A triangle of Silurian age calcareous shale of the Canberra formation is in the north east of Bruce.
