The census of population and dwellings undertaken by national state institutions world over at regular time intervals, is a fantastic source of information. However, there are major challenges to overcome when transforming the census data that usually consists of a vast number of attributes, into useful knowledge. In this paper, an artificial intelligent (AI) based approach is investigated to select appropriate attribute features that indicate interesting patterns in Beppu census wards in 2000 and 2010. The results of the self-organising map or SOM (unsupervised artificial neural network) based clustering, GIS visualisation and machine learning (J48 and JRip functions of WEKA), provide relevant discerning features, new patterns and new knowledge that can be of use to many professionals, such as urban/transport planers and resources management.