More than 5800 people were qualified in security sciences at the time of the 2021 census, up 460 per cent since 2016, Australian Bureau of Statistics data has revealed.

Qualifications in artificial intelligence increased 200 per cent from a very low benchmark in 2016, with 630 people now trained in the sector.

Statistician David Gruen said the census data reflected the rising prominence of the digital economy in Australia.

Dr Gruen said there were more than 260,000 information, communication and technology managers in the workforce, an additional 86,000 since the last census.

Support and test engineers increased 54 per cent to 15,635 people, software and app programmers were up 47 per cent to 116,927 people, with business and systems analysts up 47 per cent to 34,793.

Female representation had increased among younger workers, with women accounting for one in three information, communication and technology managers in the under 30 cohort.

Migration was a major contributor to the tech workforce, with two thirds of programmers born overseas.

Software and app programming was the third most common occupation for recent overseas arrivals, with more workers arriving from India than anywhere else.

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The median hours worked by Australians remained unchanged at 38 hours, with fewer people working very long hours since 2016.

More than seven million people worked full-time, four million worked part-time and one million were away from work, in the week before the census.