Australians, colloquially known asAussies,[31] are thecitizens,nationals and individuals associated with the country ofAustralia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural.[32] For most Australians, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Australian. Australian law does not provide for any racial or ethnic component of nationality, instead relying oncitizenship to define being an 'Australian'[33]. Since the postwar period, Australia has pursued an official policy ofmulticulturalism and has theworld's eighth-largest immigrant population,with immigrants accounting for 30 percent of the population in 2019.[34][35]
The development of a distinctive Australian identity and national character began in the 19th century. The primary language isAustralian English. Australia is home toa diversity of cultures, a result of itshistory of immigration.[37] Since 1788, Australian culture has primarily been aWestern culture strongly influenced by earlyAnglo-Celtic settlers.[38][39] The cultural divergence and evolution that has occurred over the centuries since European settlement has resulted in a distinctive Australian culture.[40][41]
As theAsian Australian population continues to expand and flourish as a result of changes in the demographic makeup of immigrants and as there has been increased economic and cultural intercourse with Asian nations, Australia has observed the gradual emergence of a "Eurasian society" within its major urban hubs, blending both European and Asian material and popular culture within a distinctly Australian context. Other influences includeAustralian Aboriginal culture, the traditions brought to the country by waves of immigration from around the world,[42] and theculture of the United States.[43]
European Australians are Australians of whose descent is wholly or partially European. Australians of European descent are the majority in Australia, with the number of ancestry responses categorised within the European groups as a proportion of the total population amounting to 57.2% (including 46%North-West European and 11.2%Southern andEastern European).[49][48] The proportion of Australians with European ancestry is thought to be higher than the numbers captured in the census as those nominating their ancestry as "Australian" are classified within theOceanian group, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics has stated that most who nominate "Australian" as their ancestry areAnglo-Celtic Australians.[50] Since soon after the beginning ofBritish settlement in 1788, people of European descent have formed the majority of the population in Australia.[52]
The largest statistical grouping of European Australians areAnglo-Celtic Australians, Australians whose ancestors originate wholly or partially in theBritish Isles. This includesEnglish Australians,Irish Australians,Scottish Australians andWelsh Australians.[53] Anglo-Celtic Australians have been highly influential in shaping the nation's character. By the mid-1840s, the numbers of freeborn settlers had overtaken the convict population. Although some observers stress Australia'sconvict history, the vast majority of early settlers came of their own free will.[54] Far more Australians are descended from assisted immigrants than from convicts, the majority of Colonial Era settlers being British and Irish.[55] About 20 percent of Australians are descendants of convicts.[56] Most of the first Australian settlers came from London, theMidlands and theNorth of England, and Ireland.[57][58][59]
Settlers that arrived throughout the 19th century were from all parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland, a significant proportion of settlers came from theSouthwest andSoutheast of England, from Ireland and from Scotland.[60] In 1888, 60 percent of the Australian population had been born in Australia, and almost all had British ancestral origins. Out of the remaining 40 percent, 34 percent had been born in theBritish Isles, and 6 percent were of European origin, mainly from Germany andScandinavia.[61] The census of 1901 showed that 98 percent of Australians had Anglo-Celtic ancestral origins.[62] In 1939 and 1945, still 98 percent of Australians had Anglo-Celtic ancestral origins.[63] Until 1947, the vast majority of the population were of British origin.[64]
Germans formed the largest non-British Isles ancestry for most of the 19th century.[65] Between 1901 and 1940, 140,000 non-British European immigrants arrived in Australia (about 16 percent of the total intake).[66] Before World War II, 13.6 percent were born overseas, and 80 percent of those were British.[67] Following theSecond World War, large numbers of continental Europeans immigrated to Australia, withItalian Australians andGreek Australians being among the largest immigrant groups during the post-war era. During the 1950s, Australia was the destination of 30 per cent ofDutch emigrants and the Netherlands-born became numerically the second largest non-British group in Australia.[68] In 1971, 70 percent of the foreign born were of European origin.
Italian Australians are Australians of Italian ancestry, and comprise the largest non Anglo-Celtic Europeanethnic group in Australia, with the 2021 census finding 4.4% of the population claiming ancestry from Italy be they migrants to Australia or their descendants born in Australia of Italian heritage.[69][51] Australia's long-history of Italian immigration has given rise to anItalo-Australian dialect of the Italian language.German Australians are Australians ofGerman ancestry. The German community constitutes the second largest non-Anglo Celtic European ethnic group in Australia, amounting to 4% of respondents in the 2021 Census.[51] Germans formed the largest non-English-speaking group in Australia up to the 20th century.[70] Although a few individuals had emigrated earlier,[71] the first large group of Germans arrived inSouth Australia 1838, not long after theBritish colonisation of South Australia.
Asian Australians are Australians with ancestry wholly or partially from the continent of Asia. At the 2021 census, the number of ancestry responses categorised within the Asian groups as a proportion of the total population amounted to 17.4% (including 6.5%Southern andCentral Asian, 6.4%North-East Asian, and 4.5%South-East Asian).[49][48] This figure excludes Australians of Middle Eastern ancestry, who are separately categorised within theNorth African and Middle Eastern group.
Chinese Australians are Australians of Chinese ancestry, forming the single largest nonAnglo-Celtic ancestry in the country, constituting 5.5% of those nominating their ancestry at the 2021 census.[51] Chinese Australians are one of the largest groups ofOverseas Chinese people, forming the largest Overseas Chinese community inOceania, and are the largest Asian-Australian community.Per capita, Australia hasmore people of Chinese ancestry than any country outside Asia. Many Chinese Australians have immigrated from mainland China,Hong Kong,Macau, andTaiwan as well asIndonesia,Malaysia,Singapore and thePhilippines, while many are descendants of such immigrants. The very early history of Chinese Australians involved significant immigration from villages of thePearl River Delta in Southern China.
More recent Chinese migrants include those fromMandarin and otherChinese dialects or forms. Less well-known are the kinds of society Chinese Australians came from, the families they left behind and what their intentions were in migrating.Gold rushes lured many Chinese to theAustralian colonies. From the mid-19th century, Chinese dubbed Australia theNew Gold Mountain after theGold Mountain of California in North America. They typically sent money to their families in the villages, regularly visited their families, and retired to their home villages after many years working asmarket gardeners,shopkeepers orcabinet-makers. As with many overseas Chinese groups the world over, early Chinese immigrants to Australia established severalChinatowns in major cities, such asSydney (Chinatown, Sydney),Melbourne (Chinatown, Melbourne, since the 1850s) andBrisbane (Chinatown, Brisbane),Perth (Chinatown, Perth), as well as in regional towns associated with the goldfields such asCairns (Cairns Chinatown).[72]
Indian Australians are Australians ofIndian ancestry, and are the second-largest Asian Australian ancestry, comprising 3.1% of the total population.[51] Indian Australians are one of the largest groups within the Indian diaspora. Indians are the youngest average age (34 years) and the fastest growing community both in terms of absolute numbers and percentages in Australia.[34] Migration of Indians to Australia followed the pattern of "from 18th-centurysepoys andlascars (soldiers and sailors) aboard visiting European ships, through 19th-century migrant labourers and the 20th century's hostile policies to the new generation of skilled professional migrants of the 21st century... India became the largest source of skilled migrants in the 21st century."[73]
Indigenous Australians are descendants of the original inhabitants of theAustralian continent.[74] Their ancestors are believed to have migrated from Africa to Asia around 70,000 years ago[75] and arrived in Australia around 50,000 years ago.[76][77] TheTorres Strait Islanders are a distinct people ofMelanesian ancestry, indigenous to theTorres Strait Islands, which are at the northernmost tip of Queensland nearPapua New Guinea, and some nearby settlements on the mainland. The term "Aboriginal" is traditionally applied to only theindigenous inhabitants of mainland Australia andTasmania, along with some of the adjacent islands.Indigenous Australians is an inclusive term used when referring to both Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders (the "first peoples").
Dispersing across the Australian continent over time, the population expanded and differentiated into hundreds of distinct groups, each with its own language and culture.[78] More than 400distinct Australian Aboriginal peoples have been identified across the continent, distinguished by unique names designating theirancestral languages, dialects, or distinctive speech patterns.[79]
In 1770, fearing he had been pre-empted by the French,James Cook changed a hilltop signal-drill onPossession Island inTorres Strait, into a possession ceremony, fabricating Britain's claim of Australia's east coast.[80] Eighteen years later, the east coast was occupied by Britain and later the west coast was also settled by Britain. At that time, the indigenous population was estimated to have been between 315,000 and 750,000.[81]
At the 2021 census, 3.2% of the Australian population identified as beingIndigenous —Aboriginal Australians andTorres Strait Islanders.[N 4][82] Indigenous Australians experience higher than average rates of imprisonment and unemployment, lower levels of education, and life expectancies for males and females that are, respectively, 11 and 17 years lower than those of non-indigenous Australians.[83][84] Some remote Indigenous communities have been described as having "failed state"-like conditions.[85]
In 2019, 30% of the Australian resident population, or 7,529,570 people, were born overseas.[34] The following table shows Australia's population by country of birth as estimated by theAustralian Bureau of Statistics in 2021. It shows only countries or regions or birth with a population of over 100,000 residing in Australia (for more information about immigration seeImmigration to Australia andForeign-born population of Australia):
Although Australia has no official language, English has always been entrenched as thede facto national language.[87]Australian English is a major variety of the language with a distinctive accent and lexicon,[88] and differs slightly from other varieties of English in grammar and spelling.[89]General Australian serves as the standard dialect.
At the 2021 census, English was the only language spoken in the home for 72% of the population. The next most common languages spoken at home areMandarin (2.7%),Arabic (1.4%),Vietnamese (1.3%),Cantonese (1.2%) andPunjabi (0.9%).[82] Over 250Indigenous Australian languages are thought to have existed at the time of first European contact,[90] of which fewer than twenty are still in daily use by all age groups.[91][92] About 110 others are spoken exclusively by older people.[92] 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.[93] Australia has asign language known asAuslan, which is the main language of about 10,112 deaf people who reported that they use Auslan language at home in the 2016 census.[94]
In 2021, just under 8,000 people declared an affiliation with traditional Aboriginal religions.[96] According toAustralian Aboriginal mythology and theanimist framework developed in Aboriginal Australia, theDreaming is asacred era in which ancestraltotemic spirit beings formedThe Creation. The Dreaming established the laws and structures of society and the ceremonies performed to ensure continuity of life and land.[98]
The data in the table is sourced from theAustralian Bureau of Statistics.[101][102] The population estimates 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.[103]
^The ABS gives the following "Explanatory Information" regarding census interpretation ofirreligion:"'No religion' is equivalent to 'Secular Beliefs and Other Spiritual Beliefs and No Religious Affiliation'. For further details, see theCensus of Population and Housing: Census Dictionary (cat. no. 2901.0)"[29]
^Only countries with 100,000 or more are listed here.
^The Australian Bureau of Statistics source lists England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland separately although they are all part of the United Kingdom. They are not combined because they are not combined in the source.
^In accordance with the Australian Bureau of Statistics source,Mainland China,Taiwan and the Special Administrative Regions ofHong Kong andMacau are listed separately.
^The Australian Bureau of Statistics source lists England and Scotland separately although they are both part of the United Kingdom. These should not be combined as they are not combined in the source.
^In accordance with the Australian Bureau of Statistics source,Mainland China,Taiwan and the Special Administrative Regions ofHong Kong andMacau are listed separately.
^Includes those who nominate "Australian" as their ancestry. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has stated that most who nominate "Australian" as their ancestry have at least partialAnglo-CelticEuropean ancestry.[50]
^The Australian Bureau of Statistics has stated that most who nominate "Australian" as their ancestry have at least partialAnglo-Celtic ancestry.[50]
^Those who nominated their ancestry as "Australian Aboriginal". Does not includeTorres Strait Islanders. This relates to nomination of ancestry and is distinct from persons who identify as Indigenous (Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander) which is a separate question.
^Indigenous identification is separate to the ancestry question on the Australian Census and persons identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander may identify any ancestry.
^"Religion in Australia, 2016: Feature article". Census of Population and Housing: Reflecting Australia - Stories from the Census, 2016. Australian Bureau of Statistics.Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved24 January 2022.
^White, Richard (1 January 1983). "A Backwater Awash: The Australian Experience of Americanisation".Theory, Culture and Society.1 (3):108–122.doi:10.1177/026327648300100309.S2CID144339300.
^"Minister for ImmigrationArthur Calwell when he proclaimed in his speech to parliament announcing the 1948 Nationality and Citizenship Act that 'to say one is an Australian is, of course, to indicate beyond all doubt that one is British'." – A. Haebich, Spinning the Dream: Assimilation in Australia 1950–1970, 2008, p. 67
^J. Jupp, The English in Australia, Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 27
^R. Watts, P. Trudgill, Alternative Histories of the English Language, Routledge, 2002, p. 70
^B. Kachru, Y. Kachru, C. Nelson, The Handbook of World Englishes, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, p. 295
^C. Meierkord, Interactions across Englishes: Linguistic Choices in Local and International Contact Situations (Studies in English Language), Cambridge University Press, 2012, p. 37
^Prochner, Laurence Wayne (2009).A history of early childhood education in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Vancouver: UBC Press. p. 134.ISBN9780774816595.
^Lines, William J. (1991).Taming the great south land: A history of the conquest of nature in Australia. North Sydney, NSW: Allen & Unwin. p. 140.ISBN9781863730174.
^Pike, Jeffery (2004).Australia. Insight Guides (6th; updated ed.). APA Insight Guides. pp. 55, 75.ISBN978-981-234-799-2.
^Dixson, Miriam (1999).The imaginary Australian: Anglo-Celts and identity, 1788 to the present. Sydney: UNSW Press. p. 10.ISBN978-0868406657.
^G. Leitner, Australia's Many Voices: Australian English—The National Language, 2004, p. 79
^V. Colic-Peisker, Migration, Class and Transnational Identities: Croatians in Australia and America (Studies of World Migrations), 2008, p. 72
^J. Abowd, R. Freeman, Immigration, Trade, and the Labor Market, 2007, p. 386
^"About Australia:Our Country". Australian Government. Archived fromthe original on 27 February 2012. Retrieved9 September 2013.Australia's first inhabitants, the Aboriginal people, are believed to have migrated from some unknown point in Asia to Australia between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago.
^Australian Bureau of Statistics (9 August 2016)."Census 2016, Language spoken at home by Sex (SA2+)".2016 Census Tables : Australia. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved12 May 2019.
Jupp, James (2001).The Australian people: an encyclopedia of the nation, its people, and their origins. Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-80789-0.
Teo, Hsu-Ming; White, Richard, eds. (2003).Cultural history in Australia. Sydney: UNSW Press.ISBN978-0868405896.
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England, Scotland, Wales
India
China[D]
New Zealand
Philippines
Vietnam
South Africa
Malaysia
Italy
Sri Lanka
Scotland[E]
Nepal
United States
Germany
South Korea
Hong Kong[F]
Greece
Media related toPeople of Australia at Wikimedia Commons
