Women do most of the housework and other surprising census figures | Greg Jericho

‘Whether being paid or not, if someone is doing the cleaning around home, the good bet is it is being done by a woman’ Photograph: Tatomm/Getty Images/iStockphoto

The latest release of data from the 2016 census reveals the ageing population has seen a shift in the makeup of our workforce with more people employed as community and personal service workers than ever before. The census data also confirms previous data suggesting that the cutting of interest rates has made servicing a mortgage easier over the past five year. But while the shift in work has seen an increase in carers and domestic cleaners, the census also reveals that women continue to the do bulk of the housework.

It will probably not come as a shock to anyone that the electorate with the highest median mortgage is that held by our prime minister. The latest batch of census data released yesterday revealed than in 2016, the median monthly mortgage in the seat of Wentworth was $3,000 – some $30 a month higher than the second most expensive electorate to have a mortgage – that of Warringah, held by the previous prime minister Tony Abbott.

The census data however reveals that while Warringah comes in second for highest mortgage payments, it comes in first on incomes, with the highest median household income in the land of $2,384 a week (or $123,968 a year). But don’t feel too bad for the good voters of Wentworth – they come in second on the household income scale with a median weekly income of $2,380.

Both Sydney suburbs sit a long way above the poorest electorate by income – that of Hinkler in Queensland, which has a median household income of $946. But on this score, the figures can be misleading. Hinkler is not so much poor as it is old. The median age of Hinkler is 46, compared to the national median of 38. Similarly, the second poorest electorate by income is the mid NSW costal electorate of Lyne – it is even older, with a median age of 50.

So when comparing incomes there always needs to be a bit of care.

Only three non-Sydney electorates are in the top 15 most expensive – Julie Bishop’s seat of Curtin in Perth, Tim Wilson’s seat of Josh Frydenberg’s seat of Kooyong also in Melbourne.

But an expensive mortgage does not necessarily mean high levels of mortgage stress – because generally a high median mortgage also means you live in an area with high median household incomes.

Where it becomes tough is those areas where the mortgage prices are high, but the median income is not so. And for that, a good place to look is western Sydney.

While in Wentworth the median monthly mortgage is equivalent to 31.5% of the median income, in the seat of Blaxland, the median mortgage payments take up 39.9% of the median household income – making it the toughest electorate in the nation to pay off a mortgage.

When we exclude the electorates with high numbers of pensioners, we see western Sydney seats such Watson, Fowler and McMahon where the median mortgage payments are well above the national average of 30.5% of median household income.

To find the place where it is easiest to service a mortgage you need to look to the national capital. The seats of Canberra and Fenner have the lowest ratio of median mortgage to median income. In the seat of Canberra, the median mortgage payment is worth just 24.7% of the median household income and in the northern Canberra seat of Fenner, it is just 25.2% – a consequence of both seats being in the top 35 for size of mortgages, but in the top 15 for size of household income:

Map: mortgage payments as a percentage of household income

Mortgage as a percent of income by electorate

Overall however the data shows that the size of mortgages payments relative to household income has fallen in the past years in all states, and in NSW, Victoria and Queensland it is even lower than it was in 2006:

Given when the 2011 census was held the standard variable mortgage rate was 7.8%, and when it was held last year it was down to 5.25%, it is not a surprise that mortgages are easier to service – but such figures say nothing about the affordability of purchasing a home.

The census data also reveals the impact of the ageing population.

In the past 10 years, the biggest jump in the share of the population has come among those aged 65-74 years – going from 6.9% in 2006 to 8.9% in 2016:

The increase in the share of retirees has also seen a shift in the type of work being done – with the healthcare and social assistance industry seeing an increase of 183,382 jobs in the five years from 2011 to 2016 – nearly 30% of all new employed:

This flows through into the growth of occupations. Easily the fastest growing occupation is community and personal service workers:

This includes jobs such as child care and aged care, which the ABS has found were among the three occupations with the biggest increase in workers.

The ABS also notes that from 2006 to 2016 there was a 130% increase in people working as domestic cleaners. This will no doubt be a relief to many women given the census data reveals that yet again it is women who do most of the unpaid domestic work. Nearly 27% of all women do more than 15 hours of unpaid domestic work compared to just 8% of men:

Now of course this would not be too surprising given more men work full-time than do women.

But the census data helpfully gives us the breakdown of hours of unpaid domestic work done by people according to how many hours of paid work they also do. This allows us to compare men and women in like for like work situations.

And men come out badly.

Of the 1.7m women who work 35-40 hours a week, 19% also do more than 15 hours of unpaid domestic work, compared to just 8% of the 2.3m men.

Rather embarrassingly for men nearly a quarter of them who work such hours do no domestic work at all compared to just 14% of the women:

As for the domestic cleaners? They are one of the just 69 occupations out of 476 where women account for more than three quarters of those employed. Whether being paid or not, if someone is doing the cleaning around home, the good bet is it is being done by a woman.