Bermuda residents are better educated, working longer hours and enjoy .a much higher median household income than ever before, according to the most comprehensive census taken to date.

While amounts paid out in rent have increased considerably, more residents than ever are opting to send their children to private schools over public education.

But there has also been a slight increase in home ownership and owner occupied homes.

The population has grown by six percent since the last census was taken in 1991, has become more diverse, but it is ageing quickly.

Thirteen percent of the Island's 370 child labourers (aged between 12 and 15) work at least 20 hours a week in addition to going to school.

Tabled in the House of Assembly yesterday, the close to 300-page report contains a range of baseline statistics with information on a wide range of subjects such as technology use, mortgage payments and health issues being collected for the first time.

Besides basic population data, the report provides statistics on housing, education, the labour force, fertility, and people in the Island's institutions.

Factors having the most impact include tourism's decline, the return of the military baselands, the growth of international business and a rise in the number of senior citizens.

International companies now employ nine percent of the workforce, up from six percent in 1991.

The report shows that since 1991, the foreign born population has grown at a much faster rate than those born in Bermuda.

Non-Bermudian households earned more on average than Bermudian households, with a median income of $75,398 as compared to $70,777.

And the Island has seen a surge in the number of Canadian-born residents who now make up 14 percent of the foreign born population, as compared to 10 percent in 1991.

But the population has also become more diverse - with a 61 percent increase in residents born in places other than Europe, North America, the Caribbean and the Azores or Portugal.

The ageing of the population continues apace with people over the age of 64 comprising 11 percent of the total, an increase of two percentage points from 1991 when the count was last carried out.

But Bermuda's population growth rate has remained marginal at 0.66 percent. Total population is, however, at 62,059, six percent higher than in 1991.

Racial disparities continue to exist in areas such as income with blacks earning considerably less than their white counterparts across all occupational groups.

And on average non-Bermudian households have higher incomes than Bermudian households.

A comprehensive picture of the health of residents was gathered during the exercise which took place in May 2000.

The data revealed that 95 percent of the population had some kind of health insurance and more than half (57 percent) of the uninsured were males.

And the report contains a breakdown of the health conditions faced by residents as well as a profile of the disabled population.

The most common health conditions are high blood pressure, asthma, diabetes, arthritis and heart conditions, according to the report.

Beset by an array of challenges, the Census Office managed a 99.5 percent coverage of Bermuda's homes when the exercise was undertaken two years ago.