We're mentally unwell and losing our religion

It's Census time

Here are the headlines.

We're about to get a clear idea of how we are developing as a nation (and how Covid-19 shaped us) as the full 2021 Census data is set to drop at 10am Tuesday.

Ahead of the release, we've been given a tiny snapshot of where we are as a country. Spoilers: millions of us are unwell, less religious and have bigger mortgages than ever.

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We are mentally unwell and losing our religion. #census

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🔢 Broad numbers

There are now 25.5m Australians - an increase of 2m since the last Census in 2016. 

Our population has more than doubled in the past 50 years, with the 1971 Census counting just more than 12m people. 800,000 people in our population are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.

👨‍⚕️Health 

More than 2.3m Australians suffer from mental health conditions, making it our country’s most prevalent long-term health issue. 

Arthritis (2.2m) and asthma (2.1m) are the next two more common conditions. 

This was the first time the Census collected information on diagnosed long-term health issues in Australians. Women (34%) were more likely to report a long-term health condition than men (30%).

👪 Family 

More than one million single-parent families have been recorded as part of the Census, making up 15.9% of all families. 

This figure has grown slightly, up from 14.5% in 1996.

More than 1.8 million people are divorced (1,831,952) and over 600,000 are separated (674,590). More than one million Australians are widowed (1,029,142) and, of these, eight out of ten are female.

⛪️ Religion 

Religion is on the decline.

Almost 40% of people said they are of no religion, compared to 30% in 2016 and 22% in 2011.

While Christianity is still the most common religion in Australia (44%), it has decreased from over 53% in 2016 and 62% in 2011.

The largest Christian denominations are Catholic (20% of the population) and Anglican (10%).

🏠 Housing 

Australians have become slaves to their mortgages, with the proportion of households that own their own home with a mortgage increasing from 25% in 1996 to 35% now.

The proportion of houses that are owned outright has dropped from 40% in 1996 to 30% now.

Apartments have continued to rise, accounting for 31% of the increase in private dwellings since 2016.

🌍 Diversity 

Nearly half of Australians have a parent born overseas, with India moving past China and New Zealand to become the third largest country of birth behind Australia and England. 

Australia is an increasingly multicultural country with the number of people who speak a second language at home jumping by nearly 700,000. Mandarin is the most common language spoken at home (other than English) followed by Arabic.

️❤️💛🖤 Indigenous Australians

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are surviving into older ages, with 47,000 aged over 65, compared to 21,000 in 2011.

The median age for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people increased slightly to 24 years, up from 23 years in 2016 and 21 years in 2011.

More than 3% (812,728) of the population identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.