Stats give snapshot of Kiama

KATINA CURTIS

THE Australian Bureau of Statistics has released the first data from its national census survey last year.

The figures show the Kiama municipality has followed some of the national trends, particularly the population getting older.

They also give a picture of the average Kiama resident as 43 years old and married with at least one child.

They are an Australian-born citizen who speaks only English at home and are either Anglican or Catholic. They live in a separate house they either own or are in the process of buying.

Kiama-ites have broadband internet at home and earn about $453 each week and most likely do no volunteer work.

People

The population of the Kiama municipality in 2006 was 18,985, slightly less than counted in the last census in 2001. However, it was about 2000 more than in 1996.

Of this, 51 percent were female and 49 percent male, which is about the same as the proportion Australia-wide. The median age of 43 was much older than the 37 years for the whole country.

In addition, the municipality has fewer people aged between 0 and nine years than in 1996, both in terms of the actual number and the proportion of the whole population.

Conversely, there are more people aged over 55 than a decade ago.

Families

In 2006 there was 42 percent more people living in Kiama who were divorced than there were in 1996.

The majority of divorcees were aged between 40 and 64 years. There was also 29 percent more people who had never been married than a decade ago. Over the same time period, the population increased only by about 6 percent.

Only a quarter of people in Kiama in 2006 had never been married.

Two out of five families in Kiama are couples with no children, 46 percent are couples with children and 12 percent are single-parent families.

Out of all the families with children, almost two-thirds have at least one child aged under 15.