The Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed the first insights from the 2016 Census of Population and Housing.
It's a preview of the key characteristics to be released later this year, which include datasets for all states and territories and more detailed information from suburbs and Local Government Areas.
In the meantime, the first insights reveal the 'typical' Australian is a 38 year-old Australian-born-female of English ancestry, who is married, with two children, has completed year 12 and is living in a three-bedroom house with two motor vehicles.
Director of Census Data Assurance Sue Taylor explains how the ABS came to its conclusion.
"We use the most common response, the mode, for all of the characteristics that describe the typical Australian except for age. For age, we use the median response."
In the 2016 Census, the so-called 'typical person' varies from state to state - the average Tasmanian is the oldest at 42 years, while the average person from the Northern Territory is the youngest, at 34.
The 'typical' Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Australian is a lot younger at 23 years old, and is also female.
The 'typical' Australian male is 37 years old - a year younger than the 'typical' female.
Dr Amanda Elliot, from the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney, says she understands why the ABS produced this information, but she argues the 'typical Australian' doesn't reveal very much about ordinary Australian experience in everyday life.
"It's fairly meaningless statistically as well. It doesn't tell us about the rich diversity of human existence in Australia. We're not all 38 year-old women with two children and we don't all live in a capital city. We have a wide variety of experiences and life histories. The idea of what's typical really masks that rich diversity, it masks the the extraordinary multiculturalism in Australia. It renders all of that invisible."
Michael Turkic and William Uy Vu Le are a same-sex couple from Lidcombe, in New South Wales.
Mr Turkic says while statistically they're not a typical Australian family, they share many of the same pressures and stresses as many other Australians.
"When people ask me what makes us a typical Australian family or couple, we say the same things that make you a typical family - we have got children to look after and put through university, we have to worry about the rent, the mortgage the phone bills, the pick-ups and drop offs. Making sure there is enough cash and take away food when you're on a trip. They are the normal things that people identify with regardless of the coupling or sexuality you're in, they're the things that affect us every day."
William Uy Vu Le has total hearing loss, and represents just 0.1 per cent of the population - making his experience atypical.
"That translates to 20,000 Australians as having some form of hearing loss. While I do have a deaf community that I relate to, I do get on with my hearing friends much more, just because I identify with them more."
Although the preliminary data shows the 'typical' Australian has both parents born in Australia, this varies from state to state.
People in New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia have at least one parent born overseas.
A typical migrant in 2016 was born in England and is 44 years old; a decade ago they were aged 46.
There are differences between the states reflecting recent migration patterns.
Social researcher Eliane Miles, from McCrindle Research, has taken a closer look.
"What we're seeing that while the median Australian who was born overseas was still born in England, there has been a shift particularly in NSW and Victoria where the typical resident who was born in NSW now comes from China rather than England which was the case in 2011. And in Victoria the typical Australian born overseas now comes from India which wasn't even in the top four list even 10 years ago. And so you're seeing some of the realities of the migration coming through."
The next ABS Census data release, due on June 27, will include more detailed information for smaller population groups and smaller geographic areas.
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