Demographics of Australia
Encyclopedia
Demographics of Australia  |
||
|---|---|---|
| Indicator | Rank | Measure |
| Population | ||
| Population | 50th | |
| Economy | ||
| GDP (PPP) per capita | 16th | $32,938 |
| GNP GNP Gross National Product is the market value of all products and services produced in one year by labor and property supplied by the residents of a country... |
18th | $35,900 |
| Unemployment rate | ↓ 57th | 4.30% |
| CO2 emissions | 12th | 18t Tonne The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI... † |
| Electricity consumption | 16th | 200.70TWh Watt-hour The kilowatt hour, or kilowatt-hour, is a unit of energy equal to 1000 watt hours or 3.6 megajoules.For constant power, energy in watt hours is the product of power in watts and time in hours... |
| Economic freedom | 3rd | 82.5 |
| Politics | ||
| Human Development Index | 2nd | 0.937 |
| Political freedom | 1st (equal)* | 1 |
| Corruption (A higher score means less (perceived) corruption.) Corruption Perceptions Index Since 1995, Transparency International publishes the Corruption Perceptions Index annually ranking countries "by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as "the misuse of public power for private... |
↓ 8th | 8.7 |
| Press freedom Press Freedom Index The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders based upon the organization's assessment of their press freedom records. Small countries, such as Andorra, are excluded from this report... |
18th | 5.38 |
| Society | ||
| Literacy Rate | 21st | 99% |
| Broadband uptake | 17th | 13.8% |
| Beer consumption | 5th | 4.49 L† |
| Health | ||
| Life Expectancy | 5th | 81.2 |
| Birth rate | 148th | 13.8‡ |
| Fertility rate | 137th | 1.969†† |
| Infant mortality | 202nd | 4.57‡‡ |
| Death rate | 122nd | 7.56‡ |
| Suicide Rate | 33rd | ♂ 20.1†‡ ♀ 5.3†‡ |
| HIV/AIDS rate | 108th | 0.10% |
| Notes | ||
| ↓ indicates rank is in reverse order (e.g. 1st is lowest) † per capita ‡ per 1000 people †† per woman ‡‡ per 1000 live births †‡ 100,000 people per year ♂ indicates males, ♀ indicates females |
||
This article is about the demographic
Demographics
Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...
features of the population of Australia, including population density, ethnicity
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religions, and other aspects of the population.
The demographics of Australia covers basic statistics, most populous cities, ethnicity and religion. The population of Australia is estimated to be as of . Australia is the 50th most populous country in the world. Its population is concentrated mainly in urban areas.
Australia's population has grown from an estimated population of about 350,000 at the time of British settlement in 1788 due to numerous waves of immigration
Immigration to Australia
Immigration to Australia is estimated to have begun around 51,000 years ago when the ancestors of Australian Aborigines arrived on the continent via the islands of the Malay Archipelago and New Guinea. Europeans first landed in the 17th and 18th Centuries, but colonisation only started in 1788. The...
during the period since. Also due to immigration, the European component of the population is declining as a percentage, as it is in many other Western countries.
Australia has scarcely more than two persons per square kilometre of total land area. With 89% of its population living in urban areas, Australia is one of the world's most urbanised
Urbanization by country
This is a list of countries by urbanization. There are two measures of the degree of urbanization of a population. The first, urban population, describes the percentage of the total population living in urban areas, as defined by the country...
countries. The life expectancy of Australia in 1999–2001 was 79.7 years, among the highest in the world.
Indigenous population
The earliest accepted timeline for the first arrivals of indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
to the continent of Australia places this human migration
Human migration
Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...
to at least 40,000 years ago most probably from the islands of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
These first inhabitants of Australia were originally hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
peoples, who over the course of many succeeding generations diversified widely throughout the continent and its nearby islands. Although their technical culture remained static—depending on wood, bone, and stone tools and weapons—their spiritual and social life was highly complex. Most spoke several languages, and confederacies sometimes linked widely scattered tribal groups. Aboriginal population density ranged from one person per square mile along the coasts to one person per 35 square miles (90.6 km²) in the arid interior. Food procurement was usually a matter for the nuclear family, requiring an estimated 3 days of work per week. There was little large game, and outside of some communities in the more fertile south-east, they had no agriculture.
Australia may have been sighted by Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
sailors in 1701, and Dutch navigators landed on the forbidding coast of modern Western Australia several times during the 17th century. Captain James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
claimed the east coast for Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
in 1770, the west coast was later settled by Britain also. At that time, the indigenous population was estimated to have been between 315,000 and 750,000, divided into as many as 500 tribes speaking many different languages. In the 2006 Census, 407,700 respondents declared they were Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
, 29,512 declared they were Torres Strait Islander, and a further 17,811 declared they were both Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
and Torres Strait Islanders
Torres Strait Islanders
Torres Strait Islanders are the indigenous people of the Torres Strait Islands, part of Queensland, Australia. They are culturally and genetically linked to Melanesian peoples and those of Papua New Guinea....
. After adjustments for undercount, the indigenous population as of end June 2006 was estimated to be 517,200, representing about 2.5% of the population.
Since the end of World War II, efforts have been made both by the government and by the public to be more responsive to Aboriginal rights and needs. Today, many tribal Aborigines lead a settled traditional life in remote areas of northern, central, and western Australia. In the south, where most Aborigines are of mixed descent, most live in the cities.
General Demographic statistics
The World Factbook
The World Factbook is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official paper copy version is available from the National Technical Information Service and the Government Printing Office...
and the Australian Bureau of Statistics
Australian Bureau of Statistics
The Australian Bureau of Statistics is Australia's national statistical agency. It was created as the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics on 8 December 1905, when the Census and Statistics Act 1905 was given Royal assent. It had its beginnings in section 51 of the Constitution of Australia...
, through censuses
Census in Australia
The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...
.
Population
- ( )
The following figures are ABS estimates for the resident population of Australia, based on the 2001 and 2006 Censuses and other data.
- 21,262,641 (July 2009 – CIA World Factbook)
- 21,180,632 (end December 2007 – preliminary)
- 20,848,760 (end December 2006 – preliminary)
- 20,544,064 (end December 2005)
- 20,252,132 (end December 2004)
- 20,011,882 (end December 2003)
- 19,770,963 (end December 2002)
- 19,533,972 (end December 2001)
States and territories
| State/territory | Land area (km²) | Population (2006) | Population density (/km²) | % of population in capital |
 Australian Capital Territory |
2,358 | 344,200 | 137.53 | 99.6% |
 New South Wales |
800,642 | 6,967,200 | 8.44 | 63% |
 Victoria (Australia) |
227,416 | 5,297,600 | 23.87 | 71% |
 Queensland |
1,730,648 | 4,279,400 | 2.26 | 46% |
 South Australia |
983,482 | 1,601,800 | 1.56 | 73.5% |
 Western Australia |
2,529,875 | 2,163,200 | 0.79 | 73.4% |
 Tasmania |
68,401 | 498,200 | 7.08 | 41% |
 Northern Territory |
1,349,129 | 219,900 | 0.15 | 54% |
Population growth rate
As of the end of June 2009 the population growthPopulation growth
Population growth is the change in a population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals of any species in a population using "per unit time" for measurement....
rate was 2.1%. This rate was based on estimates of:
- one birth every 1 minute and 45 seconds,
- one death every 3 minutes and 40 seconds,
- a net gain of one international migrant every 1 minutes and 51 seconds leading to
- an overall total population increase of one person every 1 minutes and 11 seconds.
In 2009 the estimated rates were:
- Birth rateBirth rateCrude birth rate is the nativity or childbirths per 1,000 people per year . Another word used interchangeably with "birth rate" is "natality". When the crude birth rate is subtracted from the crude death rate, it reveals the rate of natural increase...
– 12.47 births/1,000 population (Rank 164) - Mortality rateMortality rateMortality rate is a measure of the number of deaths in a population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit time...
– 6.68 deaths/1,000 population (Rank 146) - Net migration rateNet migration rateNet migration rate is the difference of immigrants and emigrants of an area in a period of time, divided per 1,000 inhabitants...
– 6.23 migrant(s)/1,000 population. (Rank 15)
At the time of Australian Federation
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...
in 1901, the rate of natural increase
Population growth
Population growth is the change in a population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals of any species in a population using "per unit time" for measurement....
was 14.9 persons per 1,000 population. The rate increased to a peak of 17.4 per thousand population in the years 1912, 1913 and 1914. During the Great Depression
Great Depression in Australia
Australia suffered badly during the period of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October, 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. As in other nations, Australia suffered years of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging incomes, and...
, the rate declined to a low of 7.1 per thousand population in 1934 and 1935. Immediately after World War II the rate increased sharply as a result of the beginning of the post–World War II baby boom and the immigration of many young people who then had children in Australia, with a plateau of rates of over 13.0 persons per 1,000 population for every year from 1946 to 1962.
There has been a fall in the rate of natural increase since 1962 due to falling fertility
Fertility
Fertility is the natural capability of producing offsprings. As a measure, "fertility rate" is the number of children born per couple, person or population. Fertility differs from fecundity, which is defined as the potential for reproduction...
. In 1971 the rate of natural increase was 12.7 persons per 1,000 population; a decade later it had fallen to 8.5. In 1996 the rate of natural increase fell below seven for the first time, with the downward trend continuing in the late 1990s. Population projections by the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate that continued low fertility, combined with the increase in deaths from an ageing population, will result in natural increase falling below zero sometime in the mid 2030s. However in 2006 the fertility rate
Total Fertility Rate
The total fertility rate of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates through her lifetime, and she...
rose to 1.81, one of the highest rate in the OECD
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an international economic organisation of 34 countries founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade...
, arguably as a result of some pro-fertility state and federal government campaigns, including the Federal Government's baby bonus.
Since 1901, the crude death rate has fallen from about 12.2 deaths per 1,000 population to 6.4 deaths per 1,000 population in 2006. (ppt)
Urbanisation
- Urbanisation population: 89% of total population (2008)
- Rate of urbanisation: 1.2% annual rate of change (2005–2010)
Sex ratio
- At birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
- Under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
- 15–64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
- 65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female
- Total population: 1 male(s)/female (2009)
Infant mortality rate
- Total: 4.75 deaths/1,000 live births
- country comparison to the world: 196
- Male: 5.08 deaths/1,000 live births
- Female: 4.4 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)
Life expectancy at birth
- Total: 81.63 years
- country comparison to the world: 70
- Male: 79.25 years
- Female: 84.15 years
Total fertility rate
- 1.969 children born/woman (2008)
For more detailed regionwise TFR details see Birth rate and fertility rate in Australia.
- country comparison to the world: 159
HIV/AIDS
- Adult prevalence rate: 0.2% (2007 est.)
- People living with HIV/AIDS: 18,000 (2007 est.)
- Deaths: less than 200 (2003 est.)
Country of birth
| Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics is Australia's national statistical agency. It was created as the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics on 8 December 1905, when the Census and Statistics Act 1905 was given Royal assent. It had its beginnings in section 51 of the Constitution of Australia... |
|
|---|---|
| Country of Birth | Estimated Resident Population |
| 1,153,264 | |
| 476,719 | |
| 220,469 | |
| (Excluding SARs and Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... Province) |
203,143 |
| 180,352 | |
| 153,579 | |
| 135,619 | |
| 125,849 | |
| 118,816 | |
| 114,921 | |
| 103,947 | |
| 86,950 | |
| 86,599 | |
| (SAR of China) | 76,303 |
| 70,908 | |
| 68,879 | |
| 67,952 | |
| 64,832 | |
| 59,221 | |
| 58,815 | |
| 57,338 | |
| 56,540 | |
| 49,819 | |
| 49,141 | |
| 48,978 | |
| 48,577 | |
| 40,400 | |
| 38,782 | |
| 37,556 | |
| 33,198 | |
| 32,747 | |
| 31,258 | |
| 29,469 | |
| 29,282 | |
| 28,175 | |
| 27,328 | |
| 26,302 | |
| 26,204 | |
| 25,659 | |
| 23,065 | |
| 21,436 | |
| 21,149 | |
| 21,142 | |
| 21,140 | |
| 20,214 | |
| 20,054 | |
| 19,768 | |
| 19,375 | |
| 17,822 | |
| 17,382 | |
For more information about immigration see Immigration to Australia
Immigration to Australia
Immigration to Australia is estimated to have begun around 51,000 years ago when the ancestors of Australian Aborigines arrived on the continent via the islands of the Malay Archipelago and New Guinea. Europeans first landed in the 17th and 18th Centuries, but colonisation only started in 1788. The...
.
Religion
Australia is a religiously diverse country and has no official religion.Christianity is the predominant faith of Australia. According to the 2006 census, the largest religious denomination is Roman Catholicism
Roman Catholic Church in Australia
The Catholic Church in Australia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church under the spiritual and administrative leadership of the Pope.Australia is a majority Christian but pluralistic society with no established religion. There are approximately 5.1 million Australian Catholics . Catholicism...
, of which 25.8% of the population claimed affiliation. The next largest is the Anglican
Anglican Church of Australia
The Anglican Church of Australia is a member church of the Anglican Communion. It was previously officially known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania...
faith, at 18.7%. Members of other Christian denominations accounted for 19.4% of the population.
Minority religions practiced in Australia include Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
(2.1% of the population), Islam
Islam in Australia
Islam in Australia is a small minority religious grouping, but fourth largest after all forms of Christianity , irreligion and Buddhism , excluding 11.2% who failed to answer at the last census...
(1.7%), Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
(0.7%) and Judaism (0.4%). Two percent of the population stated a different religion, which includes Sikhism
Sikhism in Australia
Sikhism is a small but growing minority religion in Australia, that can trace its origins in the nation to the 1830s. The Sikhs form one of the largest subgroups of Indian Australians with 26,500 adherents according to the 2006 census, having grown from 17,000 in 2001 and 12,000 in 1996...
and Indigenous beliefs, and 18.7% claimed no religion
Irreligion in Australia
Atheism, agnosticism, deism, scepticism, freethought, secular humanism or general secularism is increasing in Australia. Post-war Australia has become a highly secularised country...
, while 11.2% did not respond.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics
Australian Bureau of Statistics
The Australian Bureau of Statistics is Australia's national statistical agency. It was created as the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics on 8 December 1905, when the Census and Statistics Act 1905 was given Royal assent. It had its beginnings in section 51 of the Constitution of Australia...
2001 Census Dictionary statement on religious affiliation states the purpose for gathering such information:
Data on religious affiliation are used for such purposes as planning educational facilities, aged persons' care and other social services provided by religion-based organisations; the location of church buildings; the assigning of chaplains to hospitals, prisons, armed services and universities; the allocation of time on public radio and other media; and sociological research.
As in many Western countries, the level of active participation in church worship is lower than would be indicated by the proportion of the population identifying themselves as Christian; weekly attendance at church services is about 1.5 million, or about 7.5% of the population.
Christian charitable organisations, hospitals and schools play a prominent role in welfare and education services. The Catholic education system is the second biggest sector after government schools, with more than 650 000 students (and around 21 per cent of all secondary school enrolments). The Anglican Church educates around 105,000 students and the Uniting Church has around 48 schools.
Languages
English is the de facto national language of Australia and is spoken by the vast majority of the population.The most commonly spoken languages other than English in Australia are Italian, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, German, Spanish, Vietnamese
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
, Filipino
Filipino language
This move has drawn much criticism from other regional groups.In 1987, a new constitution introduced many provisions for the language.Article XIV, Section 6, omits any mention of Tagalog as the basis for Filipino, and states that:...
, Chinese languages, Indian languages
Languages of India
The languages of India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages—Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian languages...
, Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
and Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
, as well as numerous Australian Aboriginal languages
Australian Aboriginal languages
The Australian Aboriginal languages comprise several language families and isolates native to the Australian Aborigines of Australia and a few nearby islands, but by convention excluding the languages of Tasmania and the Torres Strait Islanders...
. Australia's hearing-impaired community uses Australian Deaf Sign Language
Auslan
Auslan is the sign language of the Australian deaf community. The term Auslan is an acronym of "Australian sign language", coined by Trevor Johnston in the early 1980s, although the language itself is much older...
.
| Language | Speakers |
|---|---|
| Only English | 15,581,333 |
| Italian | 316,895 |
| Greek | 252,226 |
| Cantonese | 244,553 |
| Arabic | 243,662 |
| Mandarin | 220,600 |
| Vietnamese | 194,863 |
| Spanish | 98,001 |
| Filipino | 92,331 |
| German | 75,634 |
| Hindi | 70,011 |
| Macedonian | 67,835 |
| Croatian | 63,612 |
| Australian Aboriginal Languages | 55,705 |
| Korean | 54,623 |
| Turkish | 53,857 |
| Polish | 53,389 |
| Serbian | 52,534 |
| French | 43,216 |
| Indonesian | 42,036 |
| Maltese | 36,514 |
| Russian | 36,502 |
| Dutch | 36,183 |
| Japanese | 35,111 |
| Tamil | 32,700 |
| Sinhalese | 29,055 |
| Samoan | 28,525 |
| Portuguese | 25,779 |
| Khmer | 24,715 |
| Assyrian (Aramaic) | 23,526 |
| Punjabi | 23,164 |
| Persian | 22,841 |
| Hungarian | 21,565 |
| Bengali | 20,223 |
| Urdu | 19,288 |
| Afrikaans | 16,806 |
| Bosnian | 15,743 |
Literacy
- Definition: age 15 and over can read and write
- Total population: 99%
- Male: 99%
- Female: 99% (2003 est.)
Nationality
- noun: Australian(s)
- adjective: Australian
Historical population estimates
Note that population estimates in the table below do not include the Aboriginal population before 1961. Estimates of Aboriginal population prior to European settlement range from 300,000 to one million, with archaeological finds indicating a sustainable population of around 750,000.| Historic population (Estimated) | |
|---|---|
| Year | Indigenous population |
| pre 1788 | 750,000 to 1,000,000 |
| Year | Non Indigenous population |
| 1788 | 859 |
| 1798 | 4,588 |
| 1808 | 10,263 |
| 1818 | 25,859 |
| 1828 | 58,197 |
| 1838 | 151,868 |
| 1848 | 332,328 |
| 1858 | 1,050,828 |
| 1868 | 1,539,552 |
| 1878 | 2,092,164 |
| 1888 | 2,981,677 |
| 1898 | 3,664,715 |
| Year | Total population |
| 1901 | 3,788,123 |
| 1906 | 4,059,083 |
| 1911 | 4,489,545 |
| 1916 | 4,943,173 |
| 1921 | 5,455,136 |
| 1926 | 6,056,360 |
| 1931 | 6,526,485 |
| 1936 | 6,778,372 |
| 1941 | 7,109,898 |
| 1946 | 7,465,157 |
| 1951 | 8,421,775 |
| 1956 | 9,425,563 |
| 1961 | 10,548,267 |
| 1966 | 11,599,498 |
| 1971 | 13,067,265 |
| 1976 | 14,033,083 |
| 1981 | 14,923,260 |
| 1986 | 16,018,350 |
| 1991 | 17,284,036 |
| 1996 | 18,310,714 |
| 2001 | 19,413,240 |
| 2006 | 20,848,760 |
General
- Health care in AustraliaHealth care in AustraliaHealth care in Australia is provided by both private and government institutions. The Minister for Health and Ageing, currently Nicola Roxon, administers national health policy...
- Immigration to AustraliaImmigration to AustraliaImmigration to Australia is estimated to have begun around 51,000 years ago when the ancestors of Australian Aborigines arrived on the continent via the islands of the Malay Archipelago and New Guinea. Europeans first landed in the 17th and 18th Centuries, but colonisation only started in 1788. The...
- List of most common surnames in Oceania
- List of cities in Australia by population
- Homelessness in AustraliaHomelessness in AustraliaThis article describes homelessness in Australia. The majority of long term homeless people are found in the large cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane...
- Census in AustraliaCensus in AustraliaThe Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...
Ethnicities
- African AustralianAfrican AustralianAfrican immigrants to Australia include Australian citizens and residents born in, or with ancestors from Africa. Immigration from Africa to Australia is only a recent phenomenon, with Europe and Asia traditionally being the largest sources of migration to Australia...
- Albanian AustralianAlbanian AustralianAlbanian Australians are residents of Australia who are of Albanian ancestry.According to the 2006 Australian census 2,014 Australians were born in Albania while 11,315 claimed Albanian ancestry, either alone or with another ancestry....
- American AustralianAmerican AustralianAmerican Australians are Australians who are either born in, or descended from migrants from the United States and its territories. This can include people of European, African American, American Indian, Latin American, Asian, or Pacific Islander backgrounds....
- Anglo-Celtic AustralianAnglo-Celtic AustralianAnglo-Celtic Australian are citizens of Australia with British and/or Irish ancestral origins.-Demography:From the beginning of the colonial era until the mid-20th century, the vast majority of settlers were British or Irish...
- Asian AustralianAsian AustralianAn Asian Australian can be generally defined as a person of Asian ancestry who was born in or is an immigrant to Australia.There is no agreed definition of who an Asian Australian is, although for the purposes of aggregating data, the Australian Bureau of Statistics in its Australian Standard...
- Assyrian AustralianAssyrian AustralianAssyrians in Australia live mainly in the state of New South Wales, with a significant community also in Melbourne. According to the 2006 census, there are 24,504 Assyrians in Australia mostly members of the Chaldean Catholic Church and the Church of the East...
- Bosnian AustralianBosnian AustralianBosnian Australians or Australian Bosnians are people of Australia who are of Bosnian ancestry or come from Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the 2006 Australian census 26,630 Australians were born in Bosnia and Herzegovina.-Immigration:...
- Chinese AustralianChinese AustralianChinese Australian is an Australian of Chinese heritage. In the 2006 Australian Census, 669,890 Australian residents identified themselves as having Chinese ancestry, either alone or with another ancestry....
- Cornish AustralianCornish AustralianCornish Australians are citizens of Australia whose ancestry originates in Cornwall, United Kingdom, one of the six Celtic Nations. They form part of the worldwide Cornish diaspora which also includes large numbers of people in the US, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico and many Latin...
- English AustralianEnglish AustralianEnglish Australians, also known as Anglo-Australians are Australians of English descent, are the single largest ethnic group in Australia and the largest 'ancestry' identity in the Australia Census after "Australian"...
- European AustralianEuropean AustralianA European Australian is a citizen or resident of Australia who has origins in any of the original peoples of Europe...
- Filipino Australian
- Greek AustralianGreek AustralianGreeks are the seventh-largest ethnic group in Australia, after those declaring their ancestry simply as "Australian". In the 2006 census, 365,147 persons declared having Greek ancestry, either alone or in conjunction with another ethnicity....
- Indian AustralianIndian AustralianAn Indian Australian is an Australian of Indian heritage. They include both those who are Australian by birth, and increasingly, those born in India or elsewhere in the Indian diaspora...
- Indigenous Australian (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander)
- Irish AustralianIrish AustralianIrish Australians have played a long and enduring part in Australia's history. Many came to Australia in the eighteenth century as settlers or as convicts, and contributed to Australia's development in many different areas....
- Italian Australian
- Korean AustralianKorean AustralianKorean Australians are people of South Korean descent living in Australia, and identifies him or herself as such.At the 2006 census 150,873 persons resident in Australia identified themselves as being of Korean ancestry, either alone or with another ancestry. 52,760 persons resident in Australia...
- Latin American AustralianLatin American AustralianLatin American Australian refers to Australian persons who were born in Latin America irrespective of their ancestral backgrounds, and their descendants...
- Lebanese AustralianLebanese AustralianA Lebanese Australian is an Australian citizen or permanent resident of Lebanese descent. The community is multi-religious, and includes a Christian, mostly Maronite Catholic, majority, as well as a large Muslim minority of both the Shia and Sunni branches of Islam, and various other Christian and...
- Macedonian AustralianMacedonian AustralianMacedonian Australians are Australians of ethnic Macedonian descent. Many have their origins in the 1920s and 1930s although larger numbers came to Australia after World War II and the Greek Civil War...
- Scottish AustralianScottish AustralianScottish Australians are residents of Australia who are of Scottish ancestry.According to the 2006 Australian census 130,204 Australian residents were born in Scotland, while 1,501,204 claimed Scottish ancestry, either alone or in combination with another ancestry.- History :The links between...
- Serbian AustralianSerbian AustralianSerbian Australians are citizens of Australia who are of Serbian ancestry. According to the 2006 census, there are 95,364 people in Australia who are of Serbian ancestry. Serbs have migrated to Australia in various waves during the 20th century...
- South African AustralianSouth African AustralianSouth African Australians are residents of Australia who are of South African ancestry.According to the 2006 Australian census 104,128 Australians were born in South Africa. Also in the Census 79,513 residents claimed South African ancestry, either alone or with another ancestry. Immigration from...
- Sudanese AustralianSudanese AustralianSudanese Australians constitute a small, mostly recently arrived group of Australians. In the 2006 census, there were 19,049 Sudanese-born Australian residents, making up 0.1% of the population...
- Welsh Australian
Further reading
- Jupp, James. The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins (2002)
- O'Farrell, Patrick. The Irish in Australia: 1798 to the Present Day (3rd ed. Cork University Press, 2001)
- Wells, Andrew, and Theresa Martinez, eds. Australia's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook (ABC-CLIO, 2004)