By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Casey has grown to the brink of 300,000 people – adding nearly 47,000 people in the past five years, according to 2016 Census data.
The reported population was 299, 301 for the Australian Bureau of Statistics census conducted on 9 August, though the survey was blighted by multiple cyber attacks and online crashes.
Casey’s rapid growth is reflected by the addition of 14,000 extra dwellings since 2011.
There are now more than 100,000 homes.
The municipality’s median age is also rising, up from 33 to 34 years.
This is still younger than the national population, which is on average 38 years old.
Weekly household income has risen (from $1342 to $1554), while monthly mortgage repayments are unchanged at $1733.
Median weekly rents however have risen from $295 to $340 – slightly higher than the national average.
A higher percentage of residents are renting (21.3 per cent) since 2011, though a significant majority own their homes or own them with a mortgage (75.3 per cent).
Nearly a quarter of households have three or more vehicles.
The top nominated ancestries are still English (19.3 per cent) and Australian (18.4 per cent), but Indian (5.9 per cent) has risen from fifth to third.
More than half of Casey’s residents are born in Australia, dipping from 61 per cent to 56 per cent. The next most common birthplaces are India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, England and New Zealand.
More than half follow Christianity, though the most popular religion was ‘no religion’ (24.3 per cent).
It was followed by Catholic (23.9 per cent), ‘not stated’ (8 per cent), Anglican (7.9 per cent) and Islam (7.4 per cent).
