MEDIA RELEASE
10 April 2013	Embargoed: 11.30 am Canberra Time	56/2013

New analysis by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) using data from the 2011 Census has revealed the characteristics of the average Australian. The latest Australian Social Trends report has shown that the average Australian is a 37 year old woman.

ABS Director of Social and Progress Reporting Jane Griffin-Warwicke said "while we know that no single person is average in all respects, the Census shows that if there was an average Australian, they would be a married woman, living with her husband and two children in a three bedroom house in a suburb of one of Australia's capital cities.

“They have lived in that house for at least five years, and have a mortgage where they pay $1800 a month.

“The average Australian was also born in Australia, as were both of her parents.

“We can also use Census data to look at how the average has changed over time. For example 50 years ago the average Australian was a 29 year old man, and 100 years ago the average Australian was a 24 year old man," she said.

Despite large increases in recent years in the number of people with no religion or with a non-Christian religion, Catholicism remains Australia's largest religion.

"Between the 1981 and the 1986 Census, Catholics overtook Anglicans as Australia's largest religious group," she said.

All AST articles are available in full online at www.abs.gov.au/socialtrends

Media notes:

• When reporting ABS data you must attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.

PROFILE OF THE AVERAGE AUSTRALIAN – 1911, 1961 and 2011

	1911	1961	2011
Sex	Male	Male	Female
Age	24	29	37
Born	Australia	Australia	Australia
Job(a)	Farmer	Clerk	Sales Assistant

(a) The job shown is the most common occupation for the sex of the average person in that year.
Source: Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2008 (cat. no. 3105.0.65.001), Australian Demographic Statistics, June 2012 (cat. no. 3101.0), Censuses of Population and Housing, 1911, 1961, and 2011



PROFILE OF THE AVERAGE AUSTRALIAN BY STATE AND TERRITORY

	NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT
Sex	Female	Female	Female	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female
Age	37	37	36	39	36	40	31	34
Born	Australia	Australia	Australia	Australia	Australia	Australia	Australia	Australia
Job(a)	Sales Assistant	Sales Assistant	Sales Assistant	Sales Assistant	Truck Driver	Sales Assistant	Defence Force Member - Other Ranks	General Clerk

(a) The job shown is the most common occupation for the sex of the average person in that state or territory.
Source: Australian Demographic Statistics, June 2012 (cat. no. 3101.0), Census of Population and Housing, 2011