Sydney took a long, close look at itself with the census taken nationally in 1996, whose results were published the following year, in 1997.
The Australian census is taken every five years.
If anything, the 1996 census shattered some ethnic composition myths about who made up Sydney's, and Australia's, population.
Overseas-born residents comprised 21.8 per cent of the Australian population, down half a per cent from 1991. Of these, the largest group of immigrants, more than 36 per cent, were born in the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand.
In Sydney, these immigrants tended to cluster in the Manly, Mosman, North Sydney and Pittwater areas, where they comprised 12 to 14 per cent of the local population.
Fewer Asians than thought
The census figures drew a stark contrast to claims by an ostensibly anti- immigration political party that Asians were overrunning the country.
At the time the census was taken, there were fewer than 860,000 Asian-born people (less than 5 per cent) out of an Australian population of 17,892,423.
The census also recorded 352,972 Aborigines (fewer than 2 per cent), up from 265,458 in 1991.
One in six spoke another language
In New South Wales, northern Sydney had 90 per cent Australian-born residents; central Sydney had 67 per cent.
Fairfield (with more than 50 per cent) had the most number of overseas-born residents, followed by Auburn (48 per cent) and Canterbury (46 per cent).
NSW Aborigines numbered 101,485 (1.7 per cent of the population). Most indigenous Sydney people lived in the outer suburbs.
One person in six in New South Wales spoke a language other than English at home.
Bigger incomes in the north
The biggest incomes were made by residents of North Sydney (a median income of $597 a week), followed by Mosman and inner Sydney ($578). The census also showed Mosman residents saddled with the heftiest mortgages with median monthly repayments of $1500.
Sydney's highest median rental costs were $300 a week in Woollhara, the lowest less than $100 a week in Liverpool.
Growth in outer suburbs
The youngest Sydney residents were to be found in Campbelltown with a median age of 27 years. The national median age was 34.
The largest population growth in Sydney was recorded in the southwestern and western suburbs. Liverpool in the southwest had a 23 per cent growth while Blacktown in the west had 10 per cent.
Declining populations were in inner Sydney (Marrickville, 0.3 per cent; Botany, 0.1 per cent) and the northern suburbs (Ku-ring-gai, 0.3 per cent; Hunters Hill, 0.2 per cent).
