Population and Housing summary report released yesterday.

Conducted between May and July and covering the period from 1980 to 1991, the census shows that unemployment jumped to a record high of six percent in 1991 from two percent or from 627 people to 2,102.

The report also shows that 51 percent of Bermudians own the home they occupy, compared to 47 percent in 1980, and median annual household income in 1991 was $48,588 -- an increase of 16.4 percent from the median annual income of $41,745 in 1988 when the figure was last measured.

The census is the first to include comprehensive information on household income, Government Chief Statistician and Census Superintendent Mr. Donald Scott pointed out during a press conference yesterday, attended by Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul.

One in seven of the 22,000 households surveyed indicated that 39 percent of the families earned between $36,000 and $72,000; 37 percent earned less than $36,000; 16 percent earned between $72,000 and $108,000; six percent earned from $108,000 to $144,000 and two percent earned $144,000 or more.

While the average size of Bermuda's households continued to decrease, from 2.93 in 1980 to 2.61 in 1991, the number of women heading homes increased by 43 percent from the period of the last census.

The 1980 census showed that 5,324 households were headed by females. Now 7,621 women head their homes. But a majority or 28 percent of the households surveyed show that they are headed by both parents.

The number of extended family households increased from 805 to 2,313.

This could be related to Bermuda's aging population in which there are 5,395 people 65 years or older, compared to 4,471 in 1980.

With the focus restricted to the Bermudian population only, senior citizens account for nearly 11 percent of the total.

The median age of the population also rose, from 29 years in 1980 to 31 years in 1991. "One of the implications of this trend will be the need to redirect resources toward the needs of a growing elderly population,'' said Mr. Scott.

"Since 1960 we basically had zero population growth,'' Dr. Saul added. "But with greater breakthroughs in medicine people are living longer.'' And this is evident in Bermuda's (civilian non-institutional) population growth of eight percent over the past 11 years, to 58,460.

While Bermudians accounted for six percent of this growth, the non-Bermudian population grew by 17 percent.

"This is largely explained by the demands of Bermuda's growing economy over the decade of the 1980s,'' the census report stated. "With a labour market near full employment throughout much of the decade, additional jobs were filled by importing labour from other countries; some 56 percent of the foreign-born population entered Bermuda between 1980 and 1991.'' The racial balance of Bermuda's population was largely unchanged over the intercensal period. But the 1991 report provided for a greater range of response and on this basis, blacks accounted for 58 percent of the population, whites for 36 percent, Asians one percent, and the remaining five percent were of mixed racial origin and/or other racial groups.

Females in Bermuda still outnumber males by four percent. A total of 30,115 females were counted compared to 28,345 males in 1991.

The census report also contains, for the first time, information on the time city workers begin their day and the mode of transportation they use to get there.

Statistics show that a majority of city workers, 6,516 of 13,340, travel to work by car either alone or with others; 4,008 travel by motorbike, and only 1,352 use public transportation. Eighty one of these workers begin work between 8 and 9 a.m. every day.

The report is expected to be available to the public next month.

A more detailed report, which will include statistics on Bermuda's homeless, more extensive tables, a fuller analysis, and a discussion of major demographic and economic concepts, will be released later this year.