Australia today, some highlights from the August 2021 Census

28 June 2022

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has begun releasing Census data which was collected in August 2021. Items catching my eye included the revelation there are now as many Millennials, people generally aged 25 to 39, as there are Baby boomers, who are aged 55-74.

There’s also been a significant increase in people stating they have no religious affiliation, with the figure up almost ten percent on the previous Census in 2016. Here’s a rundown of these, plus other, highlights:

Sydney is Australia’s largest city by population, with 5.2 million inhabitants
NSW is Australia’s largest state by population, with almost 8.1 million inhabitants
Australia’s total population is 25.5 million. It has doubled since 1971, when there were 12.4 million inhabitants
Australians have a median age of 38 years
There are now almost as many Millennials, 5.4 million people, as there are Baby Boomers
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up 3.2% of the population
English, Australian, Irish, Scottish, and Chinese, make up the top five ancestries of Australians today
Mandarin, Arabic, Vietnamese, and Cantonese are the top languages spoken after English
Almost 39% of Australians have no religious affiliation, up from 30% in 2016
About 44% identify as Christian, down from about 52% in 2016
Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Judaism are the top religions after Christianity
There are over one million single parent families in Australia
There are almost 25,000 same sex marriages
About 31% of Australians either live in rental accommodation, or outright own their dwelling