Census 2021 results: Data reveals Australia’s population, religion, marriage and culture

Australia’s latest Census data has painted a picture of where we are as a nation — and just how much has changed. See the key results.

Data from Australia’s latest Census has painted a picture of where we are as a nation — and just how much the country has changed.

Here are the key findings from the 2021 Census results.

• 25.5 million people counted in Australia on Census night – excluding overseas visitors.
• 812,728 people identified as being Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (3.2 per cent of total people counted and an increase of more than 25 per cent since 2016).

• 167 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages spoken at home in 2021 by 78,656 people.

There were nearly 26 million people counted on Census night in 2021.

• More than 1m people (1,020,007) arrived in Australia between 2017 and 2021. Four out of five were between 2017 and 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic.

• Almost half of Australians have a parent born overseas (48.2 per cent), while 27.6 per cent reporting a birthplace overseas.

• India was the largest increase in country of birth outside Australia with 220,000 (217,963) additional people counted – moving past China and New Zealand to become the third largest country of birth behind Australia and England.

Neha and Sushil Teli, who became citizens last year, were both born in India and moved to Australia in 2015. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

• Second largest increase was Nepal, with 67,752 people

• The top five reported ancestries are English (33.0 per cent), Australian (29.9 per cent), (Irish 9.5 per cent), Scottish (8.6 per cent) and Chinese (5.5 per cent)

• More than 5.6 million people speak another language other than English at home. Of these 852,706 said they do not speak English well or at all

• Most common languages spoken other than English are Mandarin (685,274 people) and Arabic (367,159)

• More than 1 million one-parents families recorded for the first time – of which four out of five were female parents.

• More than 2.5 million families with children aged under 15

There more than 2.5 million families with children under the age of 15

• 775,000 people over 55 reported looking after other people’s children – down from 825,000 in 2016.

• Almost 10 million Aussies over the age of 15 were in a registered marriage – of these 23,914 were in a same-sex marriage

• More than 1.8m are divorced and 674,590 are separated. More than 1m are widowed – eight out of 10 being female

• Almost 4.8 million (4,791,516) people reported having one of the long-term health conditions listed on the Census

• More than half of people born in Greece (56.1 per cent) and Italy (53.7 per cent) reported one or more long-term health condition

• More than 2.2m people reporting having a long-term mental health condition, arthritis (2,150,396) or asthma (2,068,020),

• Asthma is the most commonly reported health condition for 0–14 year olds, with 7.4 per cent of male children compared to 5.3 per cent of female children.

• 581,139 Australian reported serving or have served in our Australian Defence Force. 84,865 are current serving members and 496,276 former serving members. Of the former serving members, 129,437 are men aged between 65-74

There are more than half a million people who are serving or have served in the ADF.

• Less than one in seven former members are female, with more than one in five currently serving

• Christianity is the most-common religion in Australia with 43.9 per cent (down from 52.1 per cent in 2016).

• Almost 40 per cent listed ‘no religion’ up from 30.1 per cent in 2016.

• 684,002 identified as practising the Hinduism faith, while 813,392 practised Islam

• More than 10.8m private dwellings counted no Census night – 70 per cent houses, 16 per cent apartment and 13 per cent town houses

• 550,592 people live in Australia’s 370,000 (368,943) high rise apartments.

• More 2.5 million (2,620,903) now live in apartments

66 per cent of people own their home outright or with a mortgage

• 1,043,776 dwellings were unoccupied on Census night such as vacant holiday homes or vacant investment properties

• 58,155 were in a caravan on Census night and 29,369 were on a cabin or houseboat

• 66 per cent of people own their home outright or with a mortgage, 35 per cent have a mortgage while 30 per cent own their home outright

• 91.3 per cent of households reported having at least one vehicle and more than half (55.1 per cent) reported having two or more vehicles.

• Baby Boomers (55-74 years old) and Millennials (25-39 years old) each have more than 5.4 million people, with only 5,662 more Baby Boomers than Millennials counted in the 2021 Census

Originally published as Census 2021 results: Data reveals Australia’s population, religion, marriage and culture