The ‘typical’ Australian is a 38-year-old female who is married with two children, has completed Year 12 and lives in a three bedroom house with two motor vehicles, according to preliminary data from last year’s Census in Australia.
Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday also showed that the typical Australian male is 37-years-old and spends less than five hours a week on domestic work (the typical female spends between five and 14 hours a week on such work) while the typical Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Australian is a 24-year-old female and the typical migrant in Australia was born in England and is 44-years-old.
But Eliane Miles, research director at McCrindle, said the data shows that, as expected, the median age of Australians has increased from 37 to 38 since 2011 but this did vary from state-to-state with the median age in Tasmania a high at 42 and that in the Northern Territory a low at 34.
The Census also revealed evidence of an increasingly diverse population and while the typical Australian still has Anglo-Saxon ancestry with two parents born in Australia, in three states – New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia, the typical resident now has at least one parent born overseas.
In addition there have been some changes in where migrants are coming from. Ms Miles said that while the latest data showed England continues to be the top country of birth for migrants, again it varies state-by-state with the top country of birth for migrants in New South Wales was China while in Victoria it was India.
“Whereas if you look back 10 years ago in Victoria, India wasn’t even in the top four,” said Ms Miles.
Figures for the religious affiliation of Australians have not yet been released, but Ms Miles said the increasing diversity of Australians should be reflected in the religious make-up of the country’s population. She noted that the ‘no religion’ category, for example, accounted for 19 per cent of Australians in 2006, 22 per cent in 2011 and “some have predicted that will be in the high 20s this time around”.
Ms Miles said the ‘no religion’ figure has in part been influenced by a high influx of migrants from China, the majority of whom aren’t affiliated with a religion. “But, of course, at the same time…we’re going to see [people who follow] Islam rise, Hinduism will rise as a proportion, Christianity will fall as a proportion and Buddhism will also rise. And that’s partially due to the migrant communities coming into Australia.”
Meanwhile, despite concerns about the robustness of the Census due to problems with the collection of information online, Ms Miles says that despite the hiccups 96 per cent of Australians completed the Census – a figure which was slightly lower than 2011 but higher than the ABS’ hope of a 93 per cent completition rate. In addition, only 11,000 people refused to fill out the Census, a figure which was down on that of 2011 when 13,000 people refused.
“So whilst slightly less filled it out online than they would have hoped – I think it was 58 per cent compared to the 65 that they were hoping for – in the end they did get [a] good completion [rate] and, they say,…concerning the data, that it’s robust.”
The first major tranche of data from last year’s Census will be released on 27th June.
