THE typical Casterton resident is a 58-year-old married woman of English ancestry who was born in Australia – as were her parents.

She has no religion, long-term health condition or Indigenous heritage and she earns $523 per week while doing between five to 14 hours of unpaid domestic work – from maintaining her household’s finances and computer systems to doing the cooking, cleaning and other housework.

Of course, the typical resident is only a small part of the picture of the 1673 people who live in Casterton, a town which is slowly growing, ageing and becoming more culturally diverse, according to new Census data.

Most of the data gathered in last year’s nationwide Census, the record of the country’s population and demographics run every five years, was released late last month.

It reveals the population of the town has grown by just five people since the 2016 census – after it shrunk by nearly 100 between 2011 and 2016 – and more than half the population is older than 55.

A plurality of residents older than 15 – 44.6 per cent – are married as opposed to a slight majority in 2016, with more people divorced, widowed or never married.

And despite a higher proportion of people claiming each of the five most common ancestries – English, Australian, Irish, Scottish and German – slightly fewer people were born in Australia or European countries such as England and the Netherlands.

The New Zealand-born population increased by more than 50 per cent while the numbers of Indian- and Nepalese-born residents grew to double digits.

Residents are also more likely to have one or both parents born overseas, with England, New Zealand and India the most common countries of heritage.

The proportion of residents with Indigenous heritage has also increased from just over one per cent to nearly two per cent.

Over half the population still consider themselves Christian but the figure has shrunken considerably, with Casterton’s Catholic population falling below 20 per cent and those with the Uniting Church below 10 per cent.

Conversely, the 40 per cent of residents with no religious affiliation is up from 27.5 per cent in 2016.

Just less than 90 per cent of people used only English at home while South Asian languages such as Malayalan, Nepali and Punjabi were the most used non-English languages at home, a combined 31 people using those three alone.

In 2016, none of the top five languages other than English were of Asian origins and all were used by five people or fewer each.

The median weekly income has grown to $523 for individuals ($463 in 2016), $1297 for families ($1047) and $881 for households ($755).

Elsewhere, most smaller towns and rural localities in the area such as Merino, Dunrobin and Strathdownie have decreased in population.

On a state-wide scale, Victoria has grown to just over 6.5 million people, the vast majority of whom live within the area considered Greater Melbourne.

And nationwide, the population has grown by two million to 25,422,788, the median age is nearly 20 years younger than that of Casterton, a smaller proportion of people claim Australian or European heritage and the median weekly income is nearly double.

Additional Census data, relating to employment, location variables and complex topics, will be released in October this year and in 2023.