Demography of Australia

Australia contains five cities that consist of over one million people. Most of Australia's population live close to coastlines.[8]

The earliest accepted timeline for the first arrivals of indigenous Australians to the continent of Australia places this human migration to at least 65,000 years ago,[10] most probably from the islands of Indonesia and New Guinea.[11]

Captain James Cook claimed the east coast for Great Britain 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,[12] divided into as many as 500 tribes speaking many different languages.

For generations, the vast majority of both colonial-era settlers and post-Federation immigrants came from the British Isles, although the gold rushes also drew migrants from other countries, notably from China. Since the end of World War II, Australia's population more than doubled, spurred by large-scale European immigration during the immediate post-war decades. At this time, the White Australia policy discouraged non-European immigration.

Abolition of the White Australia Policy in the mid-1970s led to a significant increase in non-European immigration, mostly from Asia.

In the 2016 Australian census, the most commonly nominated ancestries were:[N 1][13][14]

At the 2016 census, 649,171 people (2.8% of the total population) identified as being Indigenous — Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders.[N 4][16]

In 2018, 29% of the Australian resident population, or 7,341,910 people, were born overseas.[17]

Australia's population has quadrupled since the end of World War I,[18] much of this increase from immigration. Australia has the world's eighth-largest immigrant population, with immigrants accounting for 29% of the population, a higher proportion than in any other nation with a population of over 10 million.[17][19] Most immigrants are skilled,[20] but the immigration quota includes categories for family members and refugees.[20]

The Australian resident population consists of people who were born in the following countries:

Country of birth of Australian residents (2016)[21]

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2018)[17]
Place of birth	Estimated resident population[upper-alpha 1]
Total Australian-born	17,650,000
Total foreign-born	7,341,910
England[upper-alpha 2]	992,000
Mainland China[upper-alpha 3]	651,000
India	592,000
New Zealand	568,000
Philippines	278,000
Vietnam	256,000
South Africa	189,000
Italy	187,000
Malaysia	174,000
Scotland[upper-alpha 4]	135,000
Sri Lanka	134,500
South Korea	116,120
Germany	114,580
Greece	108,830
United States	108,610
Hong Kong SAR[upper-alpha 5]	100,620

For more information about immigration see Immigration to Australia and Foreign-born population of Australia.

Australia was, historically, a majority Protestant nation with a large Catholic minority.[23][24] Australia has become a religiously diverse country with 22% being Catholic, 30% having no religion and there are significant numbers of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and others. While Australia has no official religion, the various governments of Australia refer to the Christian God in their ceremonies, as do the various Australian Courts. Generally, 52.1% of Australians are Christian, 30.1% have no religion and 8.2% are other religions.[22]

In an optional question on the 2016 Census, 52.1% of the Australian population declared some variety of Christianity. Historically the percentage has been far higher and the religious landscape of Australia is changing and diversifying.[25] Also in 2016, 30.1% of Australians stated "no religion" and a further 9.6% chose not to answer the question.[25] The remaining population is a diverse group which includes Muslims (2.6%), Buddhists (2.4%), Hindus (1.9%), Sikhs (0.5%), and Jews (0.4%).[25][26]

The Australian Bureau of Statistics 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 religious services is lower than would be indicated by the proportion of the population identifying themselves as affiliated with a religion; weekly attendance at Christian church services is about 1.5 million, or about 7.5% of the population.[27] 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).

Although Australia has no official language, English has always been entrenched as the de facto national language.[28] Australian English is a major variety of the language with a distinctive accent and lexicon,[29] and differs slightly from other varieties of English in grammar and spelling.[30] General Australian serves as the standard dialect.

According to the 2016 census, English is the only language spoken in the home for close to 72.7% of the population. The next most common languages spoken at home are:[31][32]

• Mandarin (2.5%)
• Arabic (1.4%)
• Cantonese (1.2%)
• Vietnamese (1.2%)
• Italian (1.2%)
• Greek (1.0%)
• Hindi (0.7%)
• Spanish (0.6%)
• Punjabi (0.6%).

A considerable proportion of first- and second-generation migrants are bilingual.

Over 250 Indigenous Australian languages are thought to have existed at the time of first European contact, of which less than 20 are still in daily use by all age groups.[33][34] About 110 others are spoken exclusively by older people.[34] At the time of the 2006 census, 52,000 Indigenous Australians, representing 12% of the Indigenous population, reported that they spoke an Indigenous language at home.[35] Australia has a sign language known as Auslan, which is the main language of about 5,500 deaf people.[36]

Indigenous Australians as a percentage of the population as of the 2011 census

The earliest accepted timeline for the first arrivals of indigenous Australians to the continent of Australia places this human migration to at least 40,000 years ago.[11]

These first inhabitants of Australia were originally hunter-gatherers, 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 approximately one person per 3 km² (1 sq mi) along the coasts to one person per 90 km² (35 sq mi) in the arid interior. Food procurement was usually a matter for the nuclear family, requiring an estimated 3 days of work per week.

Dutch navigators landed on the coasts of modern Western Australia and Queensland several times during the 17th century. Captain James Cook wrote that he claimed the east coast for Great Britain in 1770 while standing on Possession Island off the west coast of Cape York Peninsula. 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,[12] divided into many tribes speaking many different languages. In the 2011 census, 495,757 respondents declared they were Aboriginal, 31,407 declared they were Torres Strait Islander, and a further 21,206 declared they were both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.[37]

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, most of Australia's Indigenous population live on the east coast of Australia, where almost 60% of Indigenous Australians live in New South Wales (208,476) and Queensland (188,954) which roughly represents 2–5% of those state's populations. The Northern Territory has an Indigenous population of almost 70,000 and represents about 30% of the total Northern Territory population.

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.[46] Where available, actual population figures from census years are included.

As of February 2018, the population growth rate was 0.9%.[74] This rate was based on estimates of (April 2019):[1]

• one birth every 1 minute and 41 seconds,
• one death every 3 minutes and 20 seconds,
• one migrant person arriving to live in Australia every 56 seconds,
• one Australian resident leaving Australia to live overseas every 1 minute and 53 seconds, leading to
• an overall total population increase of one person every 1 minute and 13 seconds.

Much of the data that follows has been derived from the CIA World Factbook[65] and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, through censuses.

Population

Estimated resident population of Australia since 1981

Australia's age and gender structure in 2005, illustrated in a population pyramid.[75]

The following figures are ABS estimates for the resident population of Australia, based on the 2001 and 2006 Censuses and other data.

25,686,900 (as of 23 April 2020)[1]

23,470,145 (July 2018 est.)

23,232,413 (July 2017 est.)

21,262,641 (July 2009 – CIA World Factbook)

Age structure

Population pyramid of Australia in 2017

Australian babies: 0 year olds as a fraction of total persons, in Australia, according to the 2011 census results.

Australian babies: 0-4 year olds as a fraction of total persons, in Australia, according to the 2011 census results

0-14 years: 17.75% (male 2,138,080 /female 2,027,583)

15-24 years: 12.62% (male 1,520,528 /female 1,442,461)

25-54 years: 41.35% (male 4,944,587 /female 4,760,752)

55-64 years: 11.84% (male 1,379,681 /female 1,398,177)

65 years and over: 16.44% (male 1,786,595 /female 2,071,701) (2018 est.)

0–14 years: 17.8% (male 2,122,139/female 2,012,670)

15–24 years: 12.79% (male 1,524,368/female 1,446,663)

25–54 years: 41.45% (male 4,903,130/female 4,725,976)

55–64 years: 11.83% (male 1,363,331/female 1,384,036)

65 years and over: 16.14% (male 1,736,951/female 2,013,149) (2017 est.)

Median age

Map of the median age of Australians by Statistical Local Area in the 2011 census

total: 38.8 years. Country comparison to the world: 58th

male: 38.1 years

female: 39.7 years (2018 est.)

Total: 36.9 years[76]

Male: 36.6 years

Female: 38.1 years (2009 est.)

• 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)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Demographics of Australia.

• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Year Book Australia, 2009–10
• Australian population: ethnic origins (DOC)
• Build Australian population graph 1960 – 2013 (World Bank data)
• Build Australian population projection graph till 2100 (United Nation data)
• Build Australian life expectancy at birth graph 1950 – 2013 (United Nation data)
• Australia's population clock