Census 2021: what do we look like?

AUSTRALIA in the 21st century is more populated, culturally diverse and less religious according to the 2021 Census.

A record 96.1 per cent of Australians filled out the national survey last year (up from 95.1 in 2016), largely aided by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions that greatly reduced the nation’s mobility, and almost four in five people completed their forms online.

Conducted by the Australia Bureau of Statistics every five years, the 2021 Census is considered particularly notable given the moment it captured, Australian statistician Dr David Gruen said.

“The Census was conducted at an unprecedented time in Australia’s history and provides a unique snapshot of the population during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is different from previous censuses,” he said.

While two million more people were at home on August 10 for last year’s Census than 2016, the data reveals that one million of the nation’s houses sat vacant.

That’s despite Australia’s population climbing to 25.5 million people, a doubling of size in 50 years and an increase of two million since 2016.

Over a million of those new residents counted last year arrived from overseas between 2017-2021, over four in five of those people came between 2017-2019.

The new immigrants marked a significant shift in the nations cultural landscape, taking the proportion of Australian residents that are born overseas or have a parent born overseas above 50 per cent.

Their arrival is similarly reflected in the nation’s faith adherents, Hinduism has grown by 55 per cent to 684,002 people (2.7 per cent of the population) and Islam has grown to 813,392 people (3.2 per cent of the population).

A modest increase in these faiths is in stark contrast to the nations more established Christian believers, who for the first time now number well below half of the country.

In 2011, over 60 per cent of Australians identified as Christian, by 2016 that number had dropped to 50 per cent and as of last year’s count that number dropped to just over 40 per cent.

Overall, less Australians are believers than ever recorded, almost 40 per cent reported ‘no religion’ on the survey, up from 30 per cent in 2016 and 22 per cent in 2011.

There’s been a large demographic shift too, Millennials (25-39 year olds) now constitute the largest generational group in the country, marginally eclipsing Baby Boomers (55-74 year olds).

People identifying as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander have risen 25 per cent on 2016 figures, now numbering more than 800,000 people.