Population Cracks 8,000

SINCE the 2011 census the population of the Upper Hunter Shire area has grown by 414 people to reach a population of 8,284, women now outnumber men if only by just two percent and our median age has increased by two years to 42.

The position of our household income has improved.

The number of households earning less than $650 gross per week has decreased from 28.4% to 24.4% and more households are now earning more than $3,000 gross per week, up from 7.1% to 10.5%.

The monthly mortgage repayments are similar only increasing from $1,500 to $1,517, but weekly rental prices have increased from $140 to $190.

The 2016 census found 73.4% of us are connected to the internet from home, 23.9% are not connected and 2.8% did not respond.

In the Scone area only 18.4% of the population were born overseas, compared to 34.5% in New South Wales.

In the top five countries of birth, other than Australia, the Philippines joined the list coming in at number 4 and the United States was knocked out of the top 5.

People born in England, New Zealand, Ireland and Scotland remain the mainstay in the Scone area, while nationally most of the overseas-born were from Asia rather than Europe.

Only 2.8% of households in the Upper Hunter speak a language other than English, with Arabic remaining the most popular at 0.2%, followed by German 0.1%, Malayalam 0.1%, Thai 0.1% and Tagalog 0.1%.

The most popular religion is still Anglican followed closely by Catholicism, but slightly fewer people identified with a religion.

View the full census: Scone Region 2016 Census.