Census in Australia - 1881

1881

In the mid-19th century the colonial statisticians encouraged compatibility between the colonies in their respective censuses, and in 1881 a census was held simultaneously in each of the colonies. This was part of a census of the British Empire. The questions posed in the colonies were not uniform and Henry Heylyn Hayter, who conducted the Victorian census, found that this caused difficulties in dealing with Australia-wide data.

The population of Australia was 2,250,194.

At the time the Northern Territory was a territory of South Australia and had 3,451 people plus 6,346 Aboriginals in settled districts. Including its Northern Territory, South Australia had 286,211 people. The reported population of Western Australia did not include full-blood Aborigines.

The population of greater Melbourne was 282,947 and of Sydney was 224,939.