Asked by the Sunshine Coast Council to analyse population shifts, education, arts and business decisions on the coast, Bernard Salt said a younger, smarter "tech-savvy" population would be drawn to the area, transforming it by 2040.

In his report The Activated City: Reimagining the Sunshine Coast in 2040, Mr Salt predicted that the younger population's youth and energy would trigger an artistic culture.

"The Coast becomes a haven for contemporary art, music, theatre and for festival of creative thinking," Mr Salt predicted.

"Parallels are drawn between the relatively new city of the Sunshine Coast and America's artistic hub at Santa Fe."

Mr Salt said one advantage of the Sunshine Coast's push to start a new Maroochydore CBD from scratch was its impact on nearby towns.

He said the 11 per cent increase in enrolments at the University of the Sunshine Coast at Sippy Downs - where the university has grown from 600 students in 1999 to 11,600 students in 2007 - was another catalyst for change in the region.

Mr Salt said the new Maroochydore CBD would lure start-up businesses and national head offices attracted by a local workforce, a focus on technology innovation and the relaxed lifestyle.

"More and more local success stories and self-made entrepreneurs create a market for artistic patronage: perhaps Buderim will be viewed in 2040 as a kind of Byron-of-the-north," he said.

In 2015 Nambour, only 15 kilometres away, was identified as south-east Queensland's new hipster centre, picking up a younger, artistic population with an increasing proportion of university graduates.

Buderim MP Steve Dickson said the "Byron feel" was something the town had always had, with similar housing, arts and crafts and a rural hinterland feel.

"But we're starting to get it even more so now," he said.

Mr Dickson pointed to Buderim's successful Urban Food Street idea, where residents seven years ago began to grow fruit and vegetables in their street, as an example of combining local community, market foods and good ideas.

"The only thing is without a boundary revision we don't have a beach," he joked.

Mr Salt was asked to analyse the population data by SunCentral, the Sunshine Coast Council-owned company leading the development of the new Maroochydore CBD.

SunCentral is chaired by Dr Doug McTaggart, who had been the chair of the Queensland Public Service Commission and was for 15 years chief executive of Queensland Investment Corporation.

It had already captured Australia's imagination by proposing, tendering and now installing Australia's first-ever underground waste disposal system, consigning rubbish trucks and wheelie bins to museums.

Mr Salt's report will be discussed in Brisbane at a Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland business breakfast this morning.

Buderim-Kuluin-Mons-Kunda Park is bounded by Eudlo Creek and the Sunshine Motorway in the north, Karawatha Drive and the suburb of Mountain Creek in the east, the Sunshine Motorway and the Bruce Highway in the south, and the locality of Forest Glen and Maroochydore Road in the west.

The 2015 estimated resident population for Buderim-Kuluin-Mons-Kunda Park, according to 2011 Australian Bureau of Statistics, is 33,506, with a population density of 8.41 people per hectare.

In 2011 there was a big increase in people aged over 50, as well as a big increase in people under 24.

Skills breakdown (2011 Census)

Buderim has a 19.1 per cent average of residents with degree qualifications, higher than the Sunshine Coast average (14 per cent).

Buderim has a 10.1 per cent average of residents with advanced diplomas, higher than the Sunshine Coast average (9.1 per cent).

An extra 1113 people moved to Buderim with a degree between 2006 and 2011, an extra 382 people with diplomas and an extra 765 with a trade qualification.

A higher proportion of people finished Year 12 (44.6 per cent) than the Sunshine Coast average (44.6 per cent).