The population of Mackay City is 78,685. Of this number, 50% of the people are male and 49.9% are female. Five percent of the population are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. Approximately one in five residents speak Tagalog. The city's population makes up about half the total number of people living in the State of Queensland. In 2016, there were 77,285 people living in Mackay.
The religious makeup of Mackay is diverse. Of its population, the most prominent religion is Christianity. It is also notable that only about one percent of Mackay residents identify with no religion at all. However, a survey of the religious composition of Mackay revealed that most of its residents identify with one of these faiths. The other religions represented in the city include the Uniting Church and the Presbyterian Church.
Founded in 1869, Mackay City was proclaimed as a municipality on 22 September 1869. The city's name comes from its first settler, John Mackay. The town was later renamed to Mackay when he led an expedition from the southern part of the state. The city is named for Mackay, which was pronounced like Mackie. This small town was also the birthplace of one of Australia's first political leaders - William Forgan Smith. Smith won the election in 1915 and represented Mackay continuously until his death in 1942.
The unemployment rate is a useful tool for gauging the state of an economy. In Mackay, the unemployment rate is 4.8%, and about 70.1% of Mackay residents are employed, with the rest having part-time jobs. Despite the low unemployment rate, the total number of employed residents in Mackay is still two hundred and seventeen. Of the people employed in the city, 55.8% work 40 hours a week or more, while the remaining 18.5% work less than forty hours per week.