The Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, the Hon Bernie Ripoll MP, today congratulated the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on the release of the 2011 Census Data.
"The 2011 Census was the 16th in the history of census collections in Australia. Collecting and processing the data is a massive undertaking for the ABS," Mr Ripoll said.
"A workforce of approximately 43,000 short term employees collected the data while it took 800 staff nearly eight months to process."
Some key statistics revealed in the 2011 Census data include:
- Australia's population grew to 21,507,719 an increase of 8.3 per cent from 2006 (2011 December Quarter data released yesterday revealed the population had grown further to 22,485,300)
- Mandarin is now the second most common language spoken at home after English (1.6 per cent)
- The proportion of people who reported no religious affiliation grew from 18.7 per cent in 2006 to 22.3 per cent in 2011
- The local government area with the biggest increase in the number of people was Brisbane (nine per cent), while the state with the biggest proportionate increase in population was Western Australia (14.3 per cent).
"Census data is vital for informing government, business and the community when making key decisions."
"It is vital that this data is reliable and accurate, and I would like to congratulate the ABS on the first class job they have done in collecting and processing the 2011 Census data."
Mr Ripoll encouraged everyone to make use of this rich source of statistical information.
The first results of the 2011 Census are available free online from today, along with a range of new, easy-to-use tools to make searching Census data quick and easy. To view the data, visit www.abs.gov.au/census.
21 June 2012