As the 2016 Census looms large - the first such survey to be done online - it seems an apt time to take a look back at how WA stacked up five years.

The Census next Tuesday will be the first time the names and addresses of 24 million Australians will be kept and linked to other data for four years, a change that has sparked outrage among public interest groups.

There were no such concerns in 2011, when this was a snapshot of WA:

PEOPLE

* Western Australia made up 10.41 per cent of Australia's population, with 2,239,170 people.

* There were slightly more males (1,126,178) than females (1,112,992).

* Children under the age of 14 made up 19.7 per cent of the population and people over 65 made up 12.3 per cent of the population. Median age was 36.

ANCESTRY

* 62.9 per cent of West Australians were born in Australia, with the next most common places of birth being England (8.6 per cent), New Zealand (3.2 per cent) and South Africa (1.6 per cent).

* More people had both parents born in Australia than not, at 43.8 per cent and 41.4 per cent, respectively.

* Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 3.1 per cent of WA's population, with a median age of 22.

RELATIONSHIPS

* Close to half (48.7 per cent) of residents over 15 were married, 11.4 per cent were either divorced or separated and 35.3 per cent never married.

* Families in WA were primarily couple families with children (44.9 per cent), couple families without children (38.8 per cent) and single parent families (14.5 per cent).

* The average number of children per family was 1.9.

WHERE THEY LIVE

* Of occupied private dwellings in WA, 80.4 per cent were separate houses, 10.6 per cent were semi-detached, row or terrace house, or townhouse, 7.9 per cent were flats, units or apartments and 0.9 per cent were other dwellings.

JOBS

* In 2011, there were 1,152,200 people in WA who were in the labour force.

* 60.7 per cent worked full time and 28.1 per cent worked part time.

EDUCATION

* 30.4 per cent of people were attending an educational institution, including primary school (27.7 per cent), secondary school (18.2 per cent) and tertiary or technical institution (20.7 per cent).

Source: abs.gov.au census data

- AAP