On Saturday this week it is International Women’s Day. And so, today we profile the Average Australian.
Because the Average Australian is a woman.
Meet Sally Smith. Sally is in her late 30s. To be precise, she’s 37. She was born in Australia, and so were both of her parents. She also has English, Australian, Irish, or Scottish ancestry.
Sally only speaks English at home, and belongs to a Christian religion. We could safely assume that she is a Catholic – because it’s most likely. She’s stands at 161.8 cm tall, and weighs about 71.1 kg. As measured by the Body Mass Index, our average woman is overweight.
Sally Smith is married. She lives with her husband and two children, in a house in a metropolitan area of Australia. Her kids are both male and female; the oldest is Jake, and he’s nine years old. The youngest is Kate, and she is six years old.
Sally and her husband have lived in their house for at least five years. They don’t own it yet. They pay a mortgage that comes to $1800 every month. The house is a good size for them – it has three bedrooms. It also stands on its own, separate from other dwellings.
While the mortgage seems like a lot of money, it’s important to remember that both Sally and her husband work. Sally works almost full-time. She works 32 hours per week as a sales assistant. She drives to work (both her and her husband have cars). And, even though she works in retail, Sally has studied beyond high school. She holds a certificate in Business and Management.
Sally doesn’t work as many house as her husband (who typically works 41 hours per week). But she does do household-related work for five or more hours each week.
No single person is exactly like Sally
While the average Aussie looks like Sally, not one of us – out of over 22 million! – matches her exactly. As the Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us:
“The fact that no-one meets all these criteria shows that the notion of the ‘average’ masks considerable (and growing) diversity in Australia”.
More females migrate to Australia than do males
Interestingly, more females (in data from 2010-11) than males migrate to Australia: 53.8% compared to 46.2%.
However, under sponsored migration there were more men. The women tended to migrate as family, or under special eligibility or humanitarian visas.
Timpson Immigration is a female friendly law firm. Sometimes you really need to know you’re working with people who understand your story – especially if you’re not like our average Sally Smith! Contact Timpson Immigration to find out how you can give your story a happy ending.
