The number of Ballarat residents achieving non-school qualifications has increased 39.5 per cent in the last decade.
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There were 47,868 residents with a non-school qualification according to the 2016 census, up from 34,304 in 2006.
The rise outstripped Ballarat’s 19.3 per cent population growth for the same period.
There was an increase across all levels of non-school qualifications, including bachelor degrees, advanced diplomas, graduate diplomas and certificate levels.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the 2016 census data on Monday morning.
Census program manager Bindi Kindermann said Australians were upskilling like never before.
"Those who go on to study at university aren't necessarily stopping with just a bachelor degree, with more people than ever achieving postgraduate qualifications," she said.
The most common occupations for women with a degree were nursing or teaching.
For men they were accounting and software applications programming.
For people with other qualifications, excluding a bachelor degree, the most common occupations were sales assistants, electricians and child carers.
Qualified people had higher incomes and were more likely to be employed.
Census data also revealed more women were gaining non-school qualifications in 2016, with the gap between men and women continuing to grow.
The 2006 census showed men were more likely to continue their education.
However that statistic has since been reversed, with the number of women steadily increasing in the last decade to overtake men.
There were 24,535 women who gained a non-school qualification compared to 23,330 men.
The figures were a stark contrast to the 2006 census, when 17,545 males received a non-school qualification compared to 16,763 females in the same year.
– with AAP
