Demographics of Brisbane

Brisbane (/ˈbrɪzbən/ ( listen))^[1] is the capital of and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland,^[2] and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of 2.35 million,^[3] and the South East Queensland region, centred on Brisbane, encompasses a population of more than 3.5 million.^[4] The Brisbane central business district stands on the original European settlement and is situated inside a bend of the Brisbane River, about 15 kilometres (9 miles) from its mouth at Moreton Bay.^[5] The metropolitan area extends in all directions along the floodplain of the Brisbane River Valley between Moreton Bay and the Great Dividing Range, sprawling across several of Australia's most populous local government areas (LGAs), most centrally the City of Brisbane, which is by far the most populous LGA in the nation. The demonym of Brisbane is Brisbanite.

Country of Birth

Chinatown, Brisbane

Significant overseas born populations[6]
Country of birth	Population (2016)
New Zealand	106,053
England	90,086
Mainland China	36,175
India	35,335
South Africa	22,068
Philippines	20,797
Vietnam	16,731
South Korea	12,202
Taiwan	11,976
Scotland	11,691
Malaysia	10,765

The 2016 census showed that 32.2% of Brisbane’s inhabitants were born overseas.^[7] 50.9% of inhabitants had at least one parent born overseas. ^[8] Of inhabitants born outside of Australia, the four most prevalent countries of birth were New Zealand, England, Mainland China, and India. ^[9] Brisbane has the largest New Zealand and Taiwanese-born populations of any city in Australia. ^[10]

Languages

At the 2016 census, 78% of inhabitants spoke only English at home,^[11] with the next most common languages being Mandarin (2.4%), Vietnamese (1.0%), Cantonese (0.9%), Spanish (0.7%), Hindi (0.6%), Samoan (0.6%), Korean (0.6%) and Punjabi (0.6%).^[12]

Ancestry

At the 2016 census, the ancestries nominated by the largest proportion of inhabitants who stated their ancestries were English (39.7%), Australian (34.6%), Irish (13.2%), Scottish (11%), German (6.4%) and Chinese (4.7%).^[13] 2.4% of the population identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander peoples.^[14]

By far the largest ethnic minority are Asian Australians.^[15] Within this group, the largest single ethnicity is Chinese Australians.^[16] The areas of Sunnybank,^[17] Sunnybank Hills,^[18] Stretton,^[19] Robertson,^[20] Calamvale,^[21] MacGregor,^[22] Eight Mile Plains,^[23] Runcorn,^[24] Rochedale,^[25] are home to a large proportion of Brisbane's Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong-born population, with Chinese being the most commonly-reported ancestry in each of these areas. A significant portion of Brisbane's Vietnamese-born population reside in the areas of Inala,^[26] Darra^[27] and Durack.^[28]

Religion

The most commonly nominated religious affiliations are Christianity (48.8%) (Catholic (21.5%), Anglican (13.3%), Uniting Church (4.6%), other Christian (3.1%), Presbyterian and Reformed (2.6%), Baptist (2.2%), Pentecostal (1.5%)), No religion (30.6%), Buddhist (2%), Islam (1.5%) and Hindu (1.5%).

References