15 surprising things the Census tells us about Bundy
IN THE 2016 Census, there were 43,702 people in the Bundaberg electorate.
Bundaberg
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IN THE 2016 Census, there were 43,702 people in the Bundaberg electorate.
Information has been released today, providing a fascinating snap shot of life in the region.
1. We've got more women
Finding it hard to find a mate gentlemen? It may be because guys are outnumbered.
Our population has 21,015 men and 22,684 women.
2. Don't be fooled by our median age
The median age is 42 - older than the median for Queensland (37) and Australia (38).
But it doesn't mean young people don't make up much of our region.
The age groups 5-9, 20-24, 25-29, 50-54 and 55-59 take 6.2% of our population pie each.
In contrast, the age groups from 80-84 and older than 85 make up just 3.6 and 3.7 per cent of our population respectively.
3. More divorces and more widows
Some lovebirds out there will need to start popping questions if we want to compete with the rest of the country.
Our percentage of married people sits at 42.8%, while Queensland's sits at 46.9% and Australia's 48.1%.
Our rate of divorce is also higher than the rest of the country and our rate of widowed partners is about double.
However, our rate of people who have never been married is lower.
Our number of de facto relationships is identical to Australia's percentage and slightly lower than Queensland's.
4. State education is the favoured method
We have less children in preschool than the rest of the country, and more children in state schools than private schools.
Just 1014 of us - or 8.5% of our population - are enrolled in a university or other tertiary institution, well behind the national average percentage of 16.1%.
5. Mandarin is our second most spoken language
More Bundaberg people identify with having Australian ancestry than the national percentage.
English, Irish, Scottish and German ethnicity makes up our other most common backgrounds.
After English, our most commonly spoken languages are Mandarin, Italian, Korean, Tagalog and Vietnamese.
Of our households, just 1205 speak a language other than English at home.
6. 13% of us have parents born overseas
In Bundaberg, 81.2% of us are born in Australia.
England, New Zealand, Philippines, India and Italy make up the rest of the top six.
Most of us had two parents born in Australia, however, 5677 people, or 13% of our population, had two parents born in other countries.
Of those who had one parent born overseas, there are twice as many oversees-born dads in Bundy than mums.
England is the country most of our migrant parents are coming from.
7. Bundy folk are more religious than the average Aussie
Bundy people are a God-fearing lot, with more religious belief than the rest of the country, and the state.
We're also less Catholic but more Anglican than the rest of the country. However, despite being more religious than the nation, 26.3% of Bundyites say they have no religion.
8. Our median income is lower
We're well behind Queensland and Australia's personal median weekly incomes.
Bundaberg's personal median weekly income sits at just $492 per person, whereas the median personal income for Australia is $662.
Our median weekly household income is also lower, with $923 in contrast to Australia's median household income of $1438.
In Bundaberg, 30.8% of households had a weekly household income of less than $650 and 5.0% of households had a weekly income of more than $3000.
9. Thousands of us volunteer
We've got plenty of great volunteers in the region, but we're still just a little behind the rest of the country.
In the 12 months leading up to the Census, 6187 - or 17.2% - of us did some kind of volunteer work.
Nationally, 19% of Australians volunteered in that time.
10. More single-parent families
Compared to the rest of the country, we've got more couples without children and more single-parent families.
When it comes to numbers of couples with kids, we've got less compared to the rest of the country.
Of our single parents, 83.1% are mums and 16.9% are dads.
11. We're living in bigger spaces
More of us are living in houses compared to the rest of the country.
Just 7.8% of our population lives in a flat or apartment, while 13.1% of Australians do so.
Most of our homes have three to four bedrooms, as do most homes in the country.
12. More renters and more homes owned outright
Despite cheaper property prices than many Australian cities, we're still renting more than the rest of Australia.
In Bundy, 37.2% of us rent a house, compared to 30.9% of Australians.
While 34.5% of Aussies have a mortgage, only 24.5% of Bundaberg people are paying off their own home.
The good news is we outright own more of our houses, with 33.7% owning their homes outright, contrasting with 31% nationally.
Rents are cheap in Bundy - with a median rent rate of $255, compared to $330 for the state and $335 for Australia.
Mortgage repayments are also cheaper in the region, with the median repayment coming in at $1300, compared to $1755 for the nation.
13. We're less likely to own multiple cars
Of our population, 9.5% of Bundaberg folk don't have a car, while 7.5% of Australians are in the same boat.
We're more likely than the average Australian too own one car, but less likely to own multiple sets of wheels.
14. We're not quite as switched on to the internet
We're a little switched off when it comes to the internet.
While 14.1% of the nation are without the internet, just under a quarter of our population is switched off.
15. The indigenous median age is younger
Bundaberg's population includes 2219 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people.
The indigenous population's median age is 21, with more women than men making up the total.
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