What does the 2016 Census reveal for Fairfax?

Local News

I am fascinated by numbers and statistics. That’s why I get somewhat overly excited when Census data is released.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has published the first round of data from the 2016 Census of Population and Housing. Here’s what I found out about Fairfax.

There are 153,463 people living in Fairfax, which is an increase of 16.26% since the 2011 Census. As a country, the number of Australians has increased from 21,507,719 in 2011 to 23,401,892 in 2016, an increase of 8.8% over those five years. 

51.9% of Fairfax residents were female, 48.1% male and 1.96% identified as being Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. These numbers are similar to 2011 figures. The average age of Fairfax residents increased by one year to 42 years – four years older than the national average of 38 years. The average children per family remained at 1.8.

The number of private dwellings in Fairfax increased by just over 13%; from 59,037 in 2011 to 66,871 in 2016 – reflecting the growth in our population.

There were 66,871 private dwellings with an average of 2.5 people and two vehicles per household.

Median weekly household income was $1,298, while median monthly mortgage repayments were $1,740, which is slightly less than the Australian average of $1,755, and a -6% decrease on 2011 figures. Median weekly rent was $370.

The most common ancestries in Fairfax were English 32 at per cent, Australian at 25.8 per cent, Irish at 9.4 per cent, Scottish at 8.8 per cent and German at 4.8 per cent.

In Fairfax 89.1% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included German at 0.6%, Afrikaans at 0.3%, French at 0.3% and Mandarin at 0.2%. 74% of Respondents were born in Australia, with 5.9% born in England, 4.5% in New Zealand and 1.1 in South Africa.

For the full report on Fairfax, click here.

The next release of Census data will be in October 2017 and will feature employment, occupation and qualifications.

< Back to News

Stay in touch with Ted

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.