A new portrait of the Australian population emerged with the release in June 2002 of 2001 census figures.
Indigenous Australians comprised just over 2 per cent of the Australian population, the population's mean age was 40, the predominant religion was Christianity, women comprised just a little over half of the total population.
The Australian population is believed to have crossed the 20 million mark in December 2003.
According to the census figures, its population during census night 2001 was 18,972,350. At the end of 2001, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated the Australian population at 19.6 million including Australians temporarily overseas.
The previous census (1996) placed the Australian population at 17,892,423.
The Australian population at Federation (1901) was 3.7 million.
Indigenous Australians (mainly Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders) comprised just over 2 per cent of the Australian population. They numbered 410,003 in 2001, up from 352,763 in 1996.
There were more women (50.7 per cent) than men on census night 2001.
2001 census highlights
Most common age: 40.
Families: Couple families with children comprised 47 per cent of all families.
- Couple family with dependent children: 1,904,122
- Couple family without children: 1,764,167
- One-parent family: 762,632
- Couple family with non-dependent children only: 417,043
- Other: 88,864
Religion: The biggest single declared religion was Catholic at 26.36 per cent.
- Christianity: 12,764,342
- No religion: 2,905,993
- Buddhism: 357,813
- Islam: 281,578
- Hinduism: 95,473
- Judaism: 83,993
Home ownership: 66.2 per cent of all homes were either owned outright or being paid off with a mortgage.
Education: 5.6 million Australians have reached Year 12 or equivalent.
Language: 15 million speak only English at home.
Place of birth: 13,629,685 (71.8 per cent) were born in Australia, followed by the United Kingdom (1,036,245), New Zealand (355,765), Italy (218,718), Vietnam (154,831). Other places of birth (in descending numerical order) included China, Greece, Germany, Philippines, India, Netherlands, South Africa, Malaysia, Lebanon, Hong Kong, Poland, Yugoslavia, USA, Sri Lank, Croatia.
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