The national data-collecting effort will take place on Tuesday, August 10 2021, with results then being released from June the next year.

Information gathered from the census is crucial to shaping national policy and discussion, but it can also give particular regions something to think about.

The Namoi Valley Independent has trawled through the data for the Gunnedah Local Government Area (LGA) and taken a look at what some of the most important takeaways have been from previous years.

Statistics from the 2001, 2005, 2011 and 2016 have been analysed, and there are a couple of issues that stand out.

One of those relates to unemployment, which has seen quite a significant drop in the past 20 years.

Back at the beginning of 'the noughties', the number of people of a working age (15 or over) that did not have a job was 482, which represented 9.3 per cent of the population meaning the LGA was 1.9 per cent over the national average.

However, that figure has got smaller with each passing census, moving to 8.3, 6 and finally 5.5 per cent in 2016 - .8 below the state average.

One thing that is significantly lagging though is population growth.

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Australia's total number of residents has boomed since 2001, jumping from around 18.7 million to over 23.4 million by 2016 - a jump of 24.7 per cent - and it is estimated to currently be about 25.5 million.

New South Wales has had a more modest growth, but is still significant at 18.5 percent.

But in Gunnedah it is a different story, with only an extra 239 people being included as part of the LGA in that timeframe, leaving the population at 12,215 with a growth of just 2 percent.

It is not alone in the struggle to lure new or keep existing residents though, with the issue being even more pronounced in other northern inland areas.

Moree Plains LGA, which is approximately 2 hours north of the town of Gunnedah, has got gradually smaller over the past two decades, having gone from boasting 15,680 in 2001 to just 13,159 at the time of the last census.

Age profiles were only changed to five-year intervals in 2011, making it difficult to determine whether a reduction in an abnormally large older population caused the decline or not.

When the statistics from this year's census are revealed, Namoi Valley locals will be keeping an eye on whether growth is improving, declining or staying steady.

Whether the LGA actually needs more people or not is of course a matter of opinion, so the results are likely to cause mixed feelings within the community in any case.

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