2032.0 - Census of Population and Housing: Australia in Profile - A Regional Analysis, 2001  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 16/01/2004   
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MEDIA RELEASE

January 16, 2004
Embargoed: 11:30 AM (AEST)
2004
Northern Territory Regional Area has Youngest Population

The youngest population in Australia was in the Northern Territory (excluding Darwin), according to a report released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The median age in this area, the Balance of the Northern Territory (Statistical Division, or SD), was 28 years, and 29% of the population was aged 14 years or under. In comparison, the median age for the Northern Territory was 30 years, compared with 36 years for Australia as a whole.

The report used results from the 2001 Census of Population and Housing to describe the major differences in the socio-demographic characteristics of people living in different parts of Australia.

Some major findings relating to the Northern Territory include:
  • In the Balance of the Northern Territory (SD), 51% of the population were Indigenous, and 72% of these people spoke an Indigenous language at home. This contrasts with the rest of Australia, as most people speaking languages other than English at home lived in metropolitan regions.
  • Only 16% of the population of the Balance of the Northern Territory (SD) used the Internet at home, one of the lowest rates in Australia, and similar to other remote areas of Australia.
  • Rented dwellings were relatively common in the Northern Territory, compared to other areas in Australia. More than half (54%) of dwellings were rented in the Balance of the Northern Territory (SD), the third highest of any region presented in the report. The proportion in Darwin (SD) (41%) was also relatively high.
  • The Northern Territory had some of the highest rates of attendance at a University or TAFE among people aged 35 years or older in Australia. At 6%, Darwin (SD) had the highest rate of all mixed urban/rural regions presented in the report, with the Balance of the Northern Territory (SD) slightly lower at 5%.

Further information is in Census of Population and Housing: Australia in Profile - A Regional Analysis (cat. no. 2032.0).

Media Note: The report was based on ABS geographical areas called Statistical Divisions (SDs). However, to give more evenly sized regions, SDs in populous areas have generally been disaggregated to Statistical Subdivisions (SSDs) or Statistical Region Sectors (SRSs). In this report, the Northern Territory is divided into two regions - Darwin (SD) and the Balance of the Northern Territory (SD).