Snapshot of Tassie

TASMANIANS continue to be the oldest and lowest paid in the nation and Sorell is the fastest growing region, the latest Census statistics reveal.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released its major findings from the 2016 Census of Population and Housing.

Nearly one in five Tasmanians were found to be aged 65 and over, with the median age of 42 the highest of all the states and territories. The national median age was 38.

Mandarin was the most commonly spoken language other than English in Tasmanian homes.

There were 509,965 usual residents of Tasmania on Census night and the estimated population at the end of 2016 was 519,050.

For the second consecutive Census, Tasmania showed the lowest population growth in the country, at 2.9 per cent.

The state’s fastest growing region was Sorell-Dodges Ferry, which had a population increase of 8.3 per cent, followed by the Huon-Bruny Island region, up 6.7 per cent.

Tasmanians had the lowest median weekly income in the country of $573, $89 a week lower than the national figure of $662.

The Hobart local government area had the highest median income of $718 per week.

Housing costs continued to be the lowest in the nation, with the median weekly rent $230, although this was an increase of 15 per cent on the 2011 Census data. The national median was $335.

Median monthly mortgage repayments were unchanged from 2011 at $1300, well below the national average of $1755.

University of Tasmania demographer Lisa Denny said a reduction in housing stress and an increase in the median income indicated the economy was in a much better situation that it was in 2011 when the last Census was taken. She said the real value in the Census was how the data was used.

“One area flagged for future consideration was our household composition — what we saw was a drop in families with children and an increase in the number of couples without children and single households,” Ms Denny said.

“We don’t have an age breakdown, but you could link that to our ageing population.

“While we have government policy in place that encourages people to stay at home as long as they can, the question becomes is that really the best thing for their health and wellbeing and what care services are we providing to those people.”

Just under 4000 people identified as speaking Mandarin at home.

The proportion of Tasmanians born in China increased from 0.4 per cent in 2011 to 0.6 per cent in 2016 and Chinese migrants were the third most common behind the English and New Zealanders.

Fang Huang, 25, of Kingston, speaks Mandarin and Cantonese and moved to Tasmania from southern China four years ago after seeing a promotional video online about Tasmania.

“It said Tasmania was so romantic and beautiful and I’d just had a break-up at the time and I saw that movie and thought ‘I want to go there’,” she said.

The property consultant has since married, bought a house and had a child here.

She was also teaching her almost two-year-old daughter Sia some Mandarin.

“She goes to childcare five days a week and all the educators speak to her in English so sometimes I’ll try to speak to her in Mandarin, but she doesn’t understand much yet.

“I worry about it a bit but we have Chinese [language] school in New Town so she can always go there to learn Mandarin when she’s older.”