This article contains data from the 2006 Census of Population and Housing, conducted on 8 August 2006, and presents details on the highest educational attainment and the type of educational institution attended by usual residents of: the Australian Capital Territory (ACT); the Local Government Area (LGA) of Queanbeyan; and Australia as a whole. For comparison, data from the 1996 and 2001 Censuses have also been included.


Highest educational attainment

For ACT and Queanbeyan, the proportion of persons aged 15 years and over who reported a non-school educational qualification increased by around 11 percentage points from Census 1996 to Census 2006. The increases for ACT and Queanbeyan were higher than for Australia overall, which increased by 9 percentage points:

• The proportion of ACT residents with a non-school qualification increased from 41% to 52%.
• The proportion of Queanbeyan residents with a non-school qualification increased from 29% to 41%.
• The proportion of Australian residents with a non-school qualification increased from 30% to 39%.

The ACT continued to have a high proportion of persons with a non-school qualification in all categories except for certificate level courses:

• Thirty percent of ACT residents aged 15 years and over reported that they had a Bachelor Degree or higher qualification in Census 2006, up from 26% in Census 2001 and 23% in Census 1996, and 14 percentage points higher than for Australian residents overall.
• For Certificate I - IV level courses, 18% of Queanbeyan residents reported holding these qualifications in Census 2006, compared to 17% of Australian residents and 13% of ACT residents.

LEVEL OF NON-SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS (a) (b) ACT, Queanbeyan and Australia, Census 1996, 2001, 2006
	1996		2001		2006
	Persons	%	Persons	%	Persons	%
ACT
Postgraduate Degree	9,519	4.1	12,426	5.1	17,860	6.8
Graduate Diploma & Graduate Certificate	6,788	2.9	8,261	3.4	9,178	3.5
Bachelor Degree	36,255	15.6	42,556	17.5	51,659	19.7
Advanced Diploma and Diploma	16,943	7.3	18,057	7.4	22,048	8.4
Certificate I - IV (c)	25,022	10.8	31,940	13.1	34,573	13.2
Total with a qualification (d)	94,527	40.7	113,240	46.5	135,318	51.6
Total without a qualification	137,776	59.3	130,429	53.5	126,790	48.4
Total aged 15 years and over	232,303	100.0	243,669	100.0	262,108	100.0
Queanbeyan
Postgraduate Degree	230	1.1	454	1.8	920	3.3
Graduate Diploma & Graduate Certificate	269	1.3	394	1.6	585	2.1
Bachelor Degree	1,278	6.0	2,035	8.2	2,974	10.6
Advanced Diploma and Diploma	1,108	5.2	1,400	5.6	2,105	7.5
Certificate I - IV (c)	3,243	15.3	4,396	17.7	5,005	17.8
Total with a qualification (d)	6,128	29.0	8,679	34.9	11,589	41.2
Total without a qualification	15,039	71.0	16,187	65.1	16,539	58.8
Total aged 15 years and over	21,167	100.0	24,866	100.0	28,128	100.0
Australia
Postgraduate Degree	190,840	1.4	267,356	1.8	413,094	2.6
Graduate Diploma & Graduate Certificate	183,087	1.3	202,467	1.4	228,554	1.4
Bachelor Degree	1,076,934	7.7	1,434,877	9.8	1,840,663	11.6
Advanced Diploma and Diploma	846,544	6.1	884,935	6.0	1,130,470	7.1
Certificate I - IV (c)	1,881,744	13.5	2,318,326	15.8	2,662,774	16.7
Total with a qualification (d)	4,179,149	30.0	5,107,961	34.8	6,275,555	39.4
Total without a qualification	9,735,749	70.0	9,588,406	65.2	9,642,516	60.6
Total aged 15 years and over	13,914,898	100.0	14,696,367	100.0	15,918,071	100.0
(a) 'Non-School Qualification: Level of Education' has been coded to the 2001 Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED), this replaced the 1991 Australian Bureau of Statistics Classification of Qualifications (ABSCQ). (b) Excludes persons with a qualification out of scope of ASCED. (c) Includes Certificates not further defined. (d) Excludes Level of education inadequately described and Level of education not stated.
Source: Census Data

Persons attending educational institutions

The proportion of persons attending educational institutions declined from Census 2001 to Census 2006, across the ACT, Queanbeyan and Australia overall:

• The decline in the ACT was three percentage points (from 30% to 27%) which was larger than the decline nationally.
• In Queanbeyan the decline was two percentage point (from 26% to 24%) which was similar to the decline nationally.
• The proportion of Australian residents at education institutions declined from 25% in Census 2001 to 23% in Census 2006, mainly as a result of declines in students at infant/primary schools and TAFE institutions/colleges.

PERSONS ATTENDING EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS, ACT, Queanbeyan and Australia, Census 2001 and 2006
	2001		2006
	Persons	%	Persons	%
ACT
Pre-school	4,310	1.4	4,319	1.3
Infants/Primary school	29,412	9.5	26,941	8.3
Secondary school	24,014	7.8	22,981	7.1
TAFE institution/college (a)	9,899	3.2	8,616	2.7
University or other tertiary institution	21,725	7.0	22,712	7.0
Other education institution	2,956	1.0	2,621	0.8
Total attending an education institution (b)	92,316	30.0	88,190	27.2
Total not attending an education institution	215,866	70.0	235,844	72.8
Total	308,182	100.0	324,034	100.0
Queanbeyan
Pre-school	470	1.5	553	1.5
Infants/Primary school	3,213	10.0	3,332	9.3
Secondary school	2,258	7.0	2,418	6.7
TAFE institution/college (a)	1,034	3.2	965	2.7
University or other tertiary institution	1,034	3.2	1,202	3.4
Other education institution	247	0.8	241	0.7
Total attending an education institution (b)	8,256	25.6	8,711	24.2
Total not attending an education institution	24,008	74.4	27,264	75.8
Total	32,264	100.0	35,975	100.0
Australia
Pre-school	276,757	1.5	307,820	1.6
Infants/Primary school	1,764,541	9.5	1,696,798	8.5
Secondary school	1,261,477	6.8	1,275,137	6.4
TAFE institution/college (a)	489,488	2.6	428,033	2.2
University or other tertiary institution	715,779	3.9	745,457	3.8
Other education institution	143,038	0.8	127,980	0.6
Total attending an education institution (b)	4,651,080	25.0	4,581,225	23.1
Total not attending an education institution	13,937,228	75.0	15,274,063	76.9
Total	18,588,308	100.0	19,855,288	100.0
(a) Technical and Further Education Institution/College. (b) Excludes not stated and not applicable.
Source: Census Data

Further information

A wide range of 2006 Census data is available free online at www.abs.gov.au/census. The information can be viewed in the format of tables, thematic maps, or graphs via the online options of QuickStats, MapStats, Census Tables and Community Profiles.

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