Illawarra residents are older, more likely to be born overseas, less likely to be married but – despite rising property costs – are paying exactly the same amount, on average, for their monthly mortgage.
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These are just some of the insights provided by Tuesday’s release of the 2016 Census data, which shows just how the region’s citizens were living their lives on May 10 last year.
The figures show the population living between Helensburgh and Gerringong grew by 6.3 per cent – or 17,511 residents, to 293,494 – in the past five years.
The Wollongong council area – which has seen rapid growth in apartments and homes in development areas like West Dapto – gained an extra 11,212 people, growing 5.8 per cent in that time.
While they gained fewer residents, Shellharbour and Kiama LGAs gained a greater proportion of the region’s new population, both growing by more than seven per cent.
Interestingly, despite claims of a “crisis” as Wollongong house prices have skyrocketed by more than 60 per cent in the five years, median mortgage repayments across the Illawarra stayed exactly the same, at $1950.
It was a different story for renters, whose weekly payments jumped by 32 per cent – to $330 – in the same period.
Home ownership rates also stayed almost exactly the same, with 32.2 per cent of people owning a home with a mortgage and 35.5 per cent owning outright. Renters made up 28.6 per cent of the Illawarra population.
Already rich with immigrant history, the region has become even more diverse in the past five years.
Overall, the region was older – with the median age rising from 38 to 39. More than 30 per cent of residents were over 55, compared to 27 per cent five years ago.
Marriage rates dipped, with about 5000 fewer residents in a registered marriage than in 2011 and just under 3000 extra people saying they were divorced or separated.
The number of people in a de facto marriage also jumped by 1.3 per cent, or 3612 residents.
Already rich with immigrant history, the region has become even more diverse in the past five years.
Just under three quarters (74.3%) of Illawarra residents were born in Australia, down from 75.1% in 2011, and two in five residents (40.8%) had at least one parent born overseas.
The top five languages other than English spoken at home were Macedonian (2.2%), Italian (1.5%), Mandarin (1.1%), Arabic (1.1%) and Spanish (0.8%).
Illawarra residents get off their faith
People in the Illawarra – and around Australia – are quickly losing their religion, according to the results of the 2016 Census.
The national survey, released on Tuesday, shows the most common response for religious affiliations across three of the four Illawarra electorates was none.
And across the region as a whole (measured by the ABS as Helensburgh to Gerringong) 27,037 more people ticked “no religion” than in 2011.
That’s an increase from 19.1 per cent of the population, to 27.2 per cent – just pipping the next most common religious affiliation (Catholicism) by 1.2 per cent.
Only the Shellharbour electorate showed Catholicism holding strong, with 27.4 per cent (22,243 people) believing compared to “no religion”, which finished in second place with 25 per cent (20,298 people).
The Keira electorate recorded the highest “no religion” score, with 29.8 per cent.
In Wollongong 26.3 per cent reported “no religion” while in Kiama it was 28 per cent.
This reflected a broader national trend, which has seen “no religion” jump from 19 per cent in the 2011 Census to 30 per cent in 2016.