Australia

Demographics & education

In the 2001 Census (held on 7th August 2001), there were 18,769,249 million people in Australia. The population has increased by 5.7%, or just over 1 million people since the 1996 Census. As in 1996, female slightly outnumbered male in the population.

2.2% of the population identified themselves as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people in the 2001 Census which is an increase of 16.2% or 57,033 people.

Australia's population continued to age as a result of low fertility and increased life expectancy. The proportion of people aged 65 years and over increased to 12.6% (2,370,878 people) in 2001 from 12.1% in 1996. The proportion of people aged 0-14 years decreased to 20.8% (3,912,475 people) in 2001 from 21.6% in 1996.

672,813 more Australian citizens were counted in the 2001 Census than in 1996. However, the proportion of the population who were Australian citizens decreased from 89.5% in 1996 to 88.2% in 2001.

The 1996 Census counted 3,907,993 people in Australia whose place of birth was overseas. In the 2001 Census this increased by 197,451 people to 4,105,444. However, the proportion of the population who were born overseas decreased from 22.0% in 1996 to 21.9% in 2001.

The number of people in Australia classified as overseas visitors in the Census increased by 45.5% between 1996 and 2001. In part the increase was due to a change in the definition of 'Overseas visitor'. In the 1996 Census, overseas visitors were those people who stated they would be in Australia for less than 6 months. In the 2001 Census, overseas visitors were defined as those visitors who stated they would be in Australia for less than 12 months.

In the 2001 Census, 51.4% of the Australian population stated they were married. This is a lower proportion than in the 1996 Census when 53.3% of the population stated they were married. The proportion of the population who stated they were separated or divorced increased from 9.8% in 1996 to 10.8% in the 2001 Census.

Cultural & language diversity

The proportion of the population which was born in Australia decreased from 74.5% in the 1996 Census to 72.6% in 2001, although the number of Australian-born people increased by 3.0% (401,705 people) for the same period.

In the 2001 Census, nearly half (47.3%) of the Australian population stated their religion as either Catholic or Anglican. A further 15.5% stated they had no religion.

In the 2001 Census for Australia, of those people who spoke a language other than English at home, the Italian language was the most common response. English was the only language spoken at home by 80.0% of the population, a decrease from 82.0% in 1996.

Employment

The proportion of the Australian labour force which was employed at the time of the 2001 Census was 92.6%, an increase from 90.8% in the 1996 Census.

In 2001, there was a fall in the proportion of full-time workers who represented 59.8% of the labour force, down from 61.6% in 1996. The proportion of the labour force in part-time employment increased from 27.2% in 1996 to 30.0% in 2001.

The proportion of the labour force which was unemployed decreased from 9.2% in 1996 to 7.4% in 2001.

The largest occupation group for Australia, reported in both the 1996 and 2001 Censuses, was Professionals. This group had the second largest increase (15.6%) in numbers between the Censuses behind Elementary Clerical, Sales and Service Workers (17.0%).

The largest industry group for Australia, reported in both the 1996 and 2001 Censuses, was Business Services. The number of people employed in Business Services increased between the Censuses by 150,863 or 23.4%.

Family composition

The 2001 Census counted nearly 5 million families in Australia, an increase of 6.0% since 1996. In 2001, almost half (47.0%) of all families were couples with children, down from 49.6% in 1996. There were corresponding increases in the proportion of couple families without children (35.7%), up from 34.1% in 1996 and one parent families (15.4%), up from 14.5% in 1996.

Dwelling structure

Dwellings include visitor only and other not-classifiable households unless otherwise stated

7,790,079 dwellings were counted in Australia in the 2001 Census, an increase of 8.6% since 1996.

There was an increase of 22.2% (114,995 dwellings) in the number of Semi-detached, row or terrace house, townhouse etc. The category Flat, unit or apartment increased by 13.0% (106,435 dwellings) and the number of separate houses increased by 8.5% (415,400 dwellings).

Dwellings which were fully owned or being purchased accounted for 66.2% of the 7,072,202 occupied private dwellings in Australia at the 2001 Census. Occupied private dwellings being rented accounted for 26.3% of occupied private dwellings.

The number of occupied private dwellings in Australia being rented increased by 4.8% (84,816 dwellings) between the 1996 Census and the 2001 Census. In this period the proportion of dwellings rented from real estate agents increased from 42.0% to 43.8%. There were decreases in the proportions rented by the state or territory housing authorities and for the category other landlord type.

Household type

Of the 7,072,202 households counted in Australia in 2001, 68.8% (4,866,031 households) were family households, a decrease from 70.6% in 1996. The proportion of lone person households increased to 22.9% (1,616,213 households), up from 22.1% in 1996. The proportion of group households fell to 3.7% (262,551 households) in 2001, down from 4.1% in 1996.