How quickly is Australia's population ageing? Are Australians becoming less religious? Are Aussies increasingly choosing a city lifestyle?

To coincide with the taking of the 2011 Census, ABC News Online has trawled through historical data to get a picture of how the Australian population and Australian life have changed since Federation in 1901.

Australia's ageing population (1901-2100)

Total population: Slide left and right to view changes in the data over time.

Click anywhere to lock or unlock.

Slide left and right to track changes in the age profile of Australia's population from Federation in 1901 through to the present day, along with projections through to 2100.

The earliest snapshot shows just 4 per cent of Australians were over the age of 65 in 1901. Compare that to the present day, with 14 per cent of the population in the same age bracket.

And ABS projections suggest that figure will rise to 25 per cent by 2100, making clear why an ageing population is viewed as one of the great economic challenges facing the nation.

Click anywhere on the infographic to lock the date.

(Source: ABS Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2008)

Religious affiliation (1901-2006)

Slide left and right to view changes in the data over time.

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Slide the infographic left and right to track changes over time in what proportion of Australians have various religious affiliations.

The biggest rise in recent times has been in the 'no religion' category, which jumped significantly from 1971, when an instruction noting 'if no religion, write none' was added to the Census.

This infographic only includes Census years.

(Source: ABS Year Book Australia, 2008)

Proportion of population in Australian capital cities (1901-2007)

Total population: Slide left and right to view changes in the data over time.

Click anywhere to lock or unlock. N/A Sydney rest of NSW N/A Melbourne rest of Vic N/A Brisbane rest of Qld N/A Adelaide rest of SA N/A Perth rest of WA N/A Hobart rest of Tas N/A Darwin rest of NT N/A Canberra rest of ACT

This interactive infographic tracks changes in what proportion of Australians were living in Australia's state and territory capital cities, compared to those living outside the capitals.

At the time of Federation in 1901, the data shows a clear majority of Australians living outside the capitals.

Over time, the capitals gradually (or rapidly in the case of Canberra) become more dominant.

By 2007, only Queensland and Tasmania still had a majority of people living outside their capitals.

(Source: ABS Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2008)

Life expectancy at birth (1881-2006)

Slide left and right to view changes in the data over time.

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Over the period 1881 to 1890, Australian males had a life expectancy at birth of just 47 years and Australian females 51 years.

By the mid-2000s, those figures had climbed to 79 years for males and 83 years for females.

What a difference modern medicine and changes in living conditions makes.

(Source: ABS Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2008)

Divorces registered (1901-2006)

Total: Slide left and right to view changes in the data over time.

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The number of divorces being registered in Australia has grown at a significantly faster rate than the Australian population itself since Federation in 1901.

Australians registered only 398 divorces in that year, compared with just over 51,000 divorces in 2006.

However, the ABS says the divorce rate itself peaked in 2001, when there were 2.7 divorces per 1,000 residents.

(Source: ABS Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2008)

Employee earnings (1975-2010)

Slide left and right to view changes in the data over time.

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Despite considerable efforts to close the gap, these ABS figures show Australian females continue to earn significantly less than males.

In fact, this data suggests there has been no movement at all in narrowing the gap since 1975, with female incomes representing 73 per cent of male incomes in 1975 and sticking to the same percentage in 2010.

Slide the infographic left and right to explore changes in median weekly employee earnings over time.

(Source: ABS Employee Earnings, Benefits and Trade Union Membership, Australia, Aug 2010)

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