The ACT has the fastest growing population in the country according to newly released data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) 2021 Census.
Releasing the results, the ABS said the Territory had seen a population increase of 57,102 people since the last Census in 2016.
Commenting on the data, Chief Minister Andrew Barr said this was more than 21,000 persons above the last published Estimated Resident Population for the ACT, and it would have an impact on the Territory’s share of national funding arrangements, including the federal Government’s distribution of GST.
“While the ACT Government anticipated our population figures to be higher, the significant increase will require further work with the Australian Bureau of Statistics given the significant implications that it has on funding distributions,” Mr Barr said.
The ABS said the median age for people from the ACT had been on the rise.
“In 1971, the median age was 23 years,” the Bureau said.
“The median age was 35 years in both 2016 and 2021,” it said.
“The Australian median age was 38 years in 2021.”
The ABS said that in the 2021 Census, 9,000 people from the ACT identified as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, making up two per cent of the Territory’s population.
It said this was an increase from the 6,500 counted in 2016, and lower than the Australian percentage of 3.2 per cent in 2021.
The Bureau also found households in were getting smaller in the ACT, with an average number of 2.5 people living in each household, down from 3.6 in 1971.
