The United Kingdom is our leading source of overseas-born residents, followed by New Zealand, China and India. Almost a quarter of us were born overseas. today's data release reveals. Mandarin is now the second most common language spoken at home after English, while Hinduism has experienced the largest proportional growth of the three most common non-Christian religious affiliations. Check our in-depth and interactive census data graphics here The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the snapshot of Australia today from information collected in the census on August 9 last year.

The number of Australians identifying as indigenous has risen 20.5 per cent since 2006, with their median age 21, which is 16 years younger than the national median age. It found the proportion of people who reported no religious affiliation has increased from 18.7 per cent in 2006 to 22.3 per cent in 2011. But the number of Hindus has almost doubled to 276,000. Housing across Australia has also had some significant changes in the past five years, with median weekly household rents up to $285 from $191 in 2006. That is an increase of 49.2 per cent. Median monthly household mortgage repayments also jumped from $1300 in 2006 to $1800 in 2011, an increase of 38.5 per cent. The average number of people living in each household remained unchanged in the past five years at 2.6 people per household.

However the proportion of married Australians fell from 49.6 per cent in 2006 to 48.7 per cent in 2011. The population of Australia has risen to 21.5 million at the time of the census, up 8.3 per cent from from 19.8 million at the 2006 census. The median age across Australia is 37, which is unchanged from the 2006 census. The number of single-mother households nationally has dropped slightly since the last census. In 2006, 83.1 per cent of single or lone parent households were headed by a mother, but in 2011, that number slipped to 82.4 per cent.

There are more single dads with children at home, with the proportion rising to 17.6 per cent, up from 16.9 per cent in 2006. The census is conducted every five years to gather information on populations for electoral purposes and to guide government spending on new infrastructure, community services and facilities such as schools, hospitals and roads. This is the 16th census taken in Australia over the past 100 years with about 9.8 million households surveyed on August 9 last year. Loading - with staff reporters