The typical Australian is here, and despite the housing crisis, she owns a three beddy with a mortgage.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics named the 38 year-old “typical Australian” Claire. She’s married, has two children and two vehicles and graduated year 12.
It’s really disconcerting to think that the the giant range of people you come into contact with every day are condensed to an Anglo-Saxon mum in her late 30s.
I personally only share two traits with Claire, and doing five – 14 hours of unpaid domestic housework definitely isn’t one of them.
Even stranger is that the archetype hold steady in most states, except NT and WA whose typical inhabitant is a male and only the bloke in the Northern Territory isn’t married.
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To put that in the words of NT News, there’s a sheila shortage up north which we can put down to the strong demand in the construction and defence industries.
This is a massive change from the first census in 1911, in which the ‘typical’ Aussie was a 24 year old male.
It wasn’t until 1979 that women started to outnumber men, but it’s remained a pretty constant 99 men to every 100 women since then, so not really a discrepancy to write home to Mum about.
The leap in median age can be put down to the significant loss of young men across multiple wars. It wasn’t until the baby boom after World War II that the median age began to fall, but since 1971 it hasn’t stopped rising – putting it at the current 38.
However, that’s not the case for all Australians – the typical Aboriginal or Torres Straight is a 23-year-old woman.
That’s a giant discrepancy.
Australia is definitely getting older, with the most recent UN data putting us as the fourth longest living country in the world. We’re still waiting on the full census results from 2016, but in 2011, South Australia’s median age of death was 83, making them the oldest in the country.
In contrast, the Northern Territory, which has the highest level of Aboriginal people per capita, was just 63.3 years.
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Two decades apart in the same country.
The census gives the government insights to our country so they can supposedly divvy up who needs the most help and how they should be spending the budget.
So far, all we know is what the typical Australian looks like.
From that alone, it’s pretty obvious more needs to be done to support Aboriginal communities so that there isn’t a life expectancy difference of twenty years.
If you want to know how you compare to others in your state, have a look below.
NEW SOUTH WALES
Meet Amy. She’s also 38 with English ancestry and owns a three bedroom and two vehicles.
But unlike Claire, at least one of Amy’s parents was born overseas, although she speaks English at home.
VICTORIA
Louisa is married and lives in a couple with two children and completed year 12.
Like the typical New South Welshman, Louisa has at least one parent born overseas but she speaks English at home and has English ancestry.
QUEENSLAND
Jessica is another 38-year-old female married with two kids.
In 2011, the ‘typical’ Queensland home was owned with a mortgage, but in 2016, the ‘typical’ Queensland home was just as likely to be rented as owned with a mortgage.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Charlotte is a bit older than the ‘typical’ Australian, clocking in at 40.
She’s completed year 12 and does between five and 14 hours of unpaid domestic work per week.
The ‘typical’ South Australian home is owned with a mortgage, as it was in 2011, whereas in 2006 it was owned outright.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Meet Paul, the first man of this game. He’s 37 and was born in Australia with English ancestry, but at least one of his parents was born overseas.
There’s a little more room out west, and Paul has a house with four bedrooms as opposed to everyone else’s three.
TASMANIA
Margaret is quite a bit older than the ‘typical’ Australian at 42-years-old, but shares the penchant of having both parents born in Australia.
She also does between five and 14 hours of unpaid domestic work per week and completed year 12.
NORTHERN TERRITORY
And a big welcome to Mick. At 34, he’s younger than the ‘typical’ Australian and he’s unmarried. He also rents his home, but it’s three bedrooms with two motor vehicles like the rest of the country.
The ‘typical’ Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person is also male, and 25, but in the past two censuses they were female.
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
Our nation’s capital is personified as 35-year-old Lucy.
Lucy is also of English ancestry and speaks English at home. She similarly doesn’t get a break from chores, completing between five and 14 hours of unpaid domestic work per week looking after her two children.
The ABS says she also owns two vehicles, “which means she can enjoy warmer weekends on the New South Wales South Coast”.
Alright calm down ABS, I’m sure she uses her car for more things than just leave the territory… Poor Canberra.
