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KYLIE Archibald might just be the “median” Bendigo resident.
At 39 years of age, female, non-religious, with children and Australian-born parents, she fits the bill of the average Bendigo person from the 2016 Census.
The only thing missing is marriage – but that will be solved in March next year when she marries her fiancee.
And, possibly like most Bendigo residents, Ms Archibald wouldn’t want to live anywhere else in the world.
“I’ve lived here most my life since moving from Wedderburn,” she said.
“I love living here because of the friendly atmosphere, and I work nearby at the hospital which is really convenient.
“I can’t handle Melbourne, it’s too busy.”
While the Census was plagued with problems in its delivery, the Australian Bureau of Statistics remains confident it shows an accurate reflection of modern Australian life.
It also provided insight into some of the changing demographics in central Victoria.
The number of Australian-born residents in Bendigo hovered around 88 to 89 per cent from 2001 to 2011, but dropped to 84.5 per cent in 2016.
The gap was likely made up by the arrival of people from Myanmar, Thailand and India in the last five years.
The number of Australian-born people living in Bendigo was still well above the state and national average however, along with the number of homes where only English is spoken.
Karen speakers find their voice in Census
People born in Myanmar and Thailand have become the third largest group in Bendigo behind Australian and English-born residents, reflecting the city’s growing Karen population.
There were 856 people born in the two Asian countries living in Bendigo at the time of the 2016 census, making up 0.8 per cent of the city’s population.
And Karen was also the most spoken language other than English in Bendigo homes in 2016, more than double the next highest language of Mandarin, followed by Italian, Malayalam and Punjabi.
In the 2011 census, only 282 people put down Karen as their spoken language other than English.
That figure increased to 870 in 2016 – almost 10 per cent of the entire Karen population of Australia.
The first Karen family moved to Bendigo in 2007 as part of a refugee settlement program. The region, which borders Myanmar and Thailand, has been gripped by war for decades.
Bendigo has since welcomed many more Karen families in recent years.
Bendigo needs to plan for population growth
The clash between housing growth and preserving the natural environment in Bendigo will intensify more and more in the coming decades as the population continues to increase, a planning expert believes.
The Bendigo population increased by almost 25,000 since the 2001 Census – rising faster with each Census.
It now sits at more than 110,000, and the city’s growth is not projected to stop.
La Trobe University Bendigo senior lecturer in planning Andrew Butt said Bendigo would need to further diversify the type of housing available to accommodate the growing population.
“People will have to come to terms with the fact that a lot of land closer to the city needs to be reused for housing,” he said.
“Bendigo has experienced population growth of two per cent a year for the last decade as more people look to move away from Melbourne.
“It’s also mirroring the Australia-wide pattern of a decline in home ownership.”
Population growth in the Melbourne-Ballarat corridor continued to outstrip Bendigo however, including in areas like Bacchus Marsh and Melton.
‘No religion’ grows in popularity
Like most of Australia, Bendigo saw a shift away from people listing an organised religion as their faith.
The “no religion” response increased from 26.8 per cent in 2011, to 35.9 per cent in Bendigo in 2016.
At the same time, the number of people defining themselves as Catholic reduced from 24.9 per cent to 22.1 per cent. There was also a drop in the number of people who chose Anglican and the Uniting Church in Bendigo.
No religion first passed Catholicism in Bendigo in the 2011 Census.
Just like the previous three Census results, Bendigo remained less religious than the Victorian and Australian average.
But the number of children at Catholic primary and secondary schools was greater in Bendigo than the average.
It was the first time in the history of the Census that more Australians chose “no religion” than Catholic.