The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released the results of the 2016 census, revealing an Australia that is bigger, older, more diverse, less religious and becoming more Asian.
The Bureau is boasting that 95 per cent of households completed the census, despite concerns over privacy and a huge crash that took down the online system for days.
The 2016 census reveals Australia's population has passed 24.4 million people.
Two-thirds of Australians live in the capital cities, with Sydney holding its place as the country's biggest metropolis.
But only barely.
Melbourne is closing the gap and continues to grow at a faster rate.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics' David Kalisch says migration is playing a major role in the shifting country.
"The census shows Australia is more culturally diverse than ever before, with almost half of Australians either born overseas or with at least one parent born overseas."
Migration patterns are changing as well.
For the first time, the majority of Australians born overseas are Asian, not European, largely thanks to migration from India and China.
But migration does not tell the whole story.
The census shows a remarkable 18 per cent rise in the number of Indigenous Australians over the past five years.
Australian National University social scientist Nicholas Biddle explains there could be factors other than population growth involved there.
"What we think we see is an increasing number of people who previously didn't identify as being Indigenous who are now identifying as being Indigenous, which is fantastic to the extent that people are now comfortable to identify as such."
Australians are living longer, with one in six now over age 65.
The country is also less religious, with atheists now outnumbering Catholics.
The Bureau is hailing the census a success, reporting just over 95 per cent of households completed the form.
"We need to get a good response, and that's overwhelmingly what Australians participated in. And that's what gives us good, quality data. So that's ultimately what we need to get is actually good, quality data, and that's what we've achieved."
That high rate of compliance comes despite the technical problems that plagued the census last year.
The website went down for more than 40 hours, and high-profile Australians such as Senator Nick Xenophon said they were boycotting the census over privacy concerns.
The Bureau established an independent panel to review the census data and make sure it is accurate.
The panel's chairwoman, Sandra Harding, says the data is, indeed, reliable.
But she says the privacy concerns had an impact, with fewer people agreeing to have their personal data archived.
"We've seen quite a large decline. The intention of people, or permission given by people, to archive those forms for 99 years had been trending up in previous censuses. Not only is it not trending up, this time it's actually gone down. It's quite a large decline. So these are, I think, impacts. And these are matters that I know the ABS will be looking at as well."
The number of people who gave an age rather than an exact date of birth also increased, while a small number of people gave fake or invalid names.
The Bureau says, overall, the online census was a success, with two-thirds choosing the website over the paper form.
And despite the technical hitch, the Bureau has confirmed the website will be back -- in five years.
