The 2021 Census figures are in, revealing a snapshot of Forbes on August 10, 2021.
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A total 9319 people called the Forbes local government area home as of that night, that's 268 down on 2016, but still up from 9170 in 2011.
Women still outnumber men but only slightly - it's 50.6 per cent to 49.3 per cent - and the median age of our population is still 42 years.
Ten to 14-year-olds make up the biggest single age group at 7.1 per cent of the shire's residents, a total 20.3 per cent of our population is 14 years and under.
Twenty three per cent of the population is 65 years and over - slight increase on 21.8 per cent in 2016 - with slight shifts in the breakdown of age groups in between:
- 10.6 per cent of population in 20s (10.3 in 2016)
- 10.8 per cent in 30s (up from 10pc)
- 10.6 per cent in 40s (down from 11.2)
- 13.1 per cent in 50s (13.2)
Even with the challenges of 2020 and 2021, COVID-19 and lockdowns, Forbes remains a town that volunteers at higher than the national rate.
A whopping 1385 members of our community - 18.5 per cent - had done voluntary work through an organisation or group in the previous 12 months.
Their passion and purpose was in the spotlight last week as Forbes Shire Council hosted a thank you morning tea - that full story here.
That's down from one quarter of our population at the 2016 Census, but above national levels of 14.1 per cent.
Our median income is rising faster than the median monthly mortgage repayment, but not as quickly as the median rent.
Those figures stand at:
- Median household income $1259 - up 21.87 per cent on 2016.
- Median monthly mortgage repayment $1283 - up a little more than 10 per cent on 2016.
- Median rent $230 - up more than 24 per cent on $185 in 2016.
Just shy of half Forbes' population is married - 46.6 per cent - close to the national figures.
There are 861 couples with children - 35.7 per cent of our population - and another 431 one-parent families.
Where do we come from? 86.6 per cent of us were born in Australia, significantly higher than the national figure of 66.9 per cent.
Other top responses include England (0.9 per cent), New Zealand (0.5), India (0.4), Philippines (0.3) and China (0.2).
We are following a national trend we might term "losing our religion" but Catholicism still gets top billing in Forbes, where "no religion, so described, has taken a lead at a national level.
Christianity was the largest broad religious group reported in Forbes, with 31.9 per cent of the population Catholic (down from 34.4); 20.7 per cent Anglican (down from 24.8); 4.6 per cent Uniting Church; 9 per cent not stated.
There has been a significant increase - from 15.4 per cent of the population to more than a quarter at 25.4 per cent - in the number of people nominating "no religion".
89.9 per cent of Forbes households speak English at home - higher than the 72 per cent national figure, with 111 households using a non-English language.
Mandarin has emerged as the top language other than English, with the list rounded out by Italian (16), Nepali (15), Cantonese (14) and Gujarati (13).
In 2016 our top five languages (other than English) were Italian, Wiradjuri, Cantonese, Malayalam and Afrikaans.
