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Greater than 25 million folks Australians sat down on (or round) Tuesday August 20 final yr to finish their census.
Regardless of our borders nonetheless largely being closed, that was an 8.6% improve within the variety of folks finishing the census in 2021 in comparison with the final time we broke the web to do it (in 2016).
And the inhabitants has been steadily rising, largely due to migration, over the previous 25 years.
So what did the common respondent appear like?
They have been probably to be 38 (37 if male, 39 if feminine), with a barely bigger likelihood of it being a girl (50.7%).
Learn extra:
Australians are extra millennial, multilingual and fewer spiritual: what the census reveals
Millennials and Boomers battle it out
This census noticed a generational shift in who was filling out the census.
Whereas there was little change within the whole measurement of the Boomer inhabitants, the proportion of the inhabitants has dropped since 2016 – making approach for his or her conventional generational rivals.
Millennials at the moment are on equal footing, which may tells us one thing about latest (and future) elections, in addition to potential tradition wars.
We’re an more and more various nation
Greater than half of Australians (51.5%) reported both being born abroad or having a mum or dad who was.
That is the primary time because the query was added to the census this has been the case, and it will likely be attention-grabbing to see if this quantity continues to extend given the impression border closures have had over the previous two years.
Whereas England stays the primary supply of latest Australians, India, New Zealand and China weren’t far behind – and rising – as the commonest nations of delivery.
The First Nations inhabitants additionally continues to develop
Since 2016 there’s been a 25% improve within the variety of Australians who establish as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, with 812,728 folks (or 3.2% of the inhabitants) indicating it on their census type.
The 2021 knowledge additionally revealed a shift in First Nations demographics, with a rising inhabitants of Indigenous folks now aged over 65 – a greater than 150% improve (from 31,000 to 47,000 folks) on 2016.
Learn extra:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander inhabitants has elevated, however the census lacks element in different sides of Indigenous lives
Think about ‘no faith’
The variety of Australians who recognized as having no faith elevated once more this census (38.9%), rocketing up from 30.1% in 2016.
Whereas Christians as an entire remained the primary spiritual group – with 43.9% of the inhabitants establish with some type of Christianity – “no faith” was the primary particular person spiritual affiliation, with Catholic a distant second.
Learn extra:
‘No faith’ is Australia’s second-largest spiritual group – and it is having a profound impact on our legal guidelines
A population-wide take a look at our long-term well being
For the primary time, the Australian Bureau of Statistics requested Australians about long-term well being circumstances, which supplies us a population-level view of the self-reported well being of the nation.
Whereas slightly below 15.3 million (60.1%) Australians reported no circumstances, 2.2 million reported having some form of long-term psychological well being situation (together with despair or nervousness), with arthritis and bronchial asthma not far behind.
An ageing inhabitants, in addition to stories of the impression of COVID and lockdowns on psychological well being throughout a number of populations, counsel it’s unlikely the variety of folks with a long-term well being situation goes to lower over time.
The info additionally present that ladies are extra probably than males to have a number of long-term circumstances.
Ladies are nonetheless doing (a lot) extra housekeeping than males
Lastly, the census confirmed – once more – that ladies are doing the lion’s share of unpaid home work.
Ladies have been more likely than males to be doing greater than 30 hours of unpaid home work within the week previous to census night time, and males have been extra more likely to have achieved none in any respect.
Our first – and hopefully final – COVID census reveals that we nonetheless have loads of progress to make in the best way labour is shared within the house.