The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released the full results from last year's Census on August 10, 2021.

Lismore's Census data would have changed a great deal since February 28, 2022, so below is the snapshot to late 2021over the last 5-years.

Lismore's Population increased by 1,339 people since 2016 to a total of 45,938 for the 2480 postcode. The previous 5-year increase was only 204 between the 2011 and 2016 Census. We have proved a popular place to reside especially during COVID but not at the same pace as our neighbours in Ballina.

By comparison, Ballina (the 2478 postcode only) showed an increase of 3,743 in the last 5 years showing Australia's obsession with a sea migration while Byron Bay (2481 postcode only) increased by 1,890.

We have slightly more females (50.9%) than males (49.1%).

The median age for Lismore is 44 with the largest age cells 55-69 although there are 10,595 (23%) people under the age of 20.

Lismore's diversity is reflected by the couples with no children statistics being 3% higher than the rest of NSW. Couples with children is close to 9% lower than the state average while one-parent families are nearly 6% higher than the state average with 78.3% of those female.

It appears our love affair with a house and land package is still alive with 83.9% of us living in a separate house. Semi-detached house and townhouse is only 9.6% while apartments and flats make up 4.6% of our population. We have built another 724 homes in the last 5 years and we like them to have 3 bedrooms (42.2% or 4 bedrooms (31.6%).

Medium-density housing hasn't really caught on in Lismore.

More people own their own home (37.8%) than are paying one off through a mortgage (31.8%) with renters making up 26.8% of the market.

For those that do have a mortgage, the good news is that 75.3% are paying less than 30% of household income on that mortgage payment with the average mortgage repayments being $1,517 per month.

Renters have seen their average rents increase from $265 per week to $310 per week. Anyone looking to rent in today's market would gladly take that price.

The median average household income is $1,326 which is up from $1,069 in 2016, an individual is $685 per week.

We have fewer married people than we did in 2016, a decrease of 2.1% while the Never Married statistic increased by 2.4% and the percentage of divorcees remains stable at 11.8%.

Lismore is sending their children to state government primary schools more than catholic, howeve,r the gap is reduced during secondary school when 2.2% of us decide to send our children to a catholic high school. State High schools are still the most popular choice.

9% of our population got to TAFE or other training facilities for further education while 11% go to university or higher education.

Where do we come from?

Our ancestry is definitely European recording 68%. This is broken down to English 41.3%, Irish 14.5% and Scottish 12.2%. Australian ancestry is at 39.1% which will increase over time as the Country of Birth numbers see Australian record 81.2% and the Country of Birth of Parents saw Australia record 67.5%.

We are a postcode of No Religion (43.6%). No Religion is described as "does not include those who reported Secular and Other Spiritual Beliefs such as Atheism, Agnosticism and Own Spiritual Beliefs". Catholics make up 18% of the population, Anglican 11.3% with 9.1% not stated.

You would have to say that we are an area with a few health issues.

The "no long-term health conditions" question was clicked by 52.3% of people meaning 47.7% do have long-term health concerns. The state average was 61%.

These include Mental Health including depression (12.3%), Arthritis 10% and Asthma 9.9%.

Finally, the majority acknowledge they have performed unpaid domestic housework (71.4%) with 5-14 hours the highest number in the week before the Census.

25.2% of us provide unpaid childcare to help out our kids or friends while 17.9% of us had performed voluntary work through a group or organisation.

As we mentioned at the start of the story, these statistics would create quite a different picture now given the events that changed our lives over the last 4 months. How quickly we recover will be reflected in the 2026 Census.