Census 2016: ‘typical’ Aussie is a 38-year-old mum with two kids

Mandy Black loves Vegemite toast, playing backyard cricket, and has achieved the Aussie dream of owning her own home.

Mandy Black with her children Noah, 8, and Abigail, 6, at their home in Perth. Picture: Colin Murty

Mandy Black loves Vegemite toast, playing backyard cricket, exploring the great outdoors and throwing a snag on the barbie and has achieved the Australian dream of owning her own home.

She also happens to be slap bang in the nation’s demographic sweet spot.

When the Australian Bureau of Statistics released its first batch of census data yesterday, Ms Black at 38 years of age, a mother of two children with a husband, a house and parents that were born here, fits the definition of the “typical’’ Australian.

“I’m not surprised to hear that I’m the typical Australian,” Ms Black said yesterday from her home in suburban Perth.

“I am many generations Australian. My great grandparents, grandparents and parents were all Australian, so I do feel like I embody what an Australian is.”

Ms Black is a nurse who only recently returned to part-time work after being a stay-at-home mum while raising her two kids; eight-year-old Noah and six-year-old Abigail.

She has noticed that multiculturalism has been the greatest change to the Australian social landscape during her life, and believes younger generations are far more accepting of people from different cultural backgrounds.

“I think it’s because so many of us now have parts of different cultures within our own families and communities so we’re far more exposed to different ways of thinking and different ways of life.”

With research that suggests a young person today will have up to five career changes in their lifetime, Ms Black says the best thing she can do is give her kids the skills to live a happy life.

“Health, happiness and opportunity — that’s all I want for them,” she said.

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The census found the “typical’’ national average age had risen to 38 instead of 37, which was recorded in both 2006 and 2011.

With an ageing population, Ms Black is hopeful young people will still take up carers’ roles so that when she’s older, she won’t be left high and dry.