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Australia Now

Our People

There are more than 21 million people resident in Australia.

They come from a wide range of backgrounds:

Indigenous Australians

Before Europeans arrived in Australia in the 1700s, Indigenous people had lived on the continent over thousands of years. The Indigenous population at the time of European settlement is estimated to have been at least 315 000. Their lives were changed irrevocably after the British claimed Australia in 1788. In the years that followed, the Indigenous population declined significantly, and by the 1930s the total Australian Indigenous population was estimated to be only 20 per cent of its original size. Today, a little more than two per cent of Australians identify as Indigenous. In the 2006 census this amounted to more than 450 000 people. Between the 2001 and 2006 censuses, the Indigenous population increased by 11 per cent, or 45 000 persons.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are culturally diverse and belong to many language groups. Their lifestyle, religious and cultural traditions reflect a deep connection with the land, sea and sky—a connection lived by Indigenous Australians to this day. Australia honours and respects the culture and heritage of its Indigenous people. The Australian Government takes a leading role in the process of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians through its pursuit of practical and symbolic measures that have a positive effect on the everyday lives of Indigenous Australians. On 13 February 2008, the Prime Minister formally apologised to Indigenous Australians for the removal of children from their families and communities between 1910 and 1970 and pledged to improve Indigenous education, health and housing.

British settlement and post-federation migration

When the British ‘First Fleet’ arrived on 26 January 1788 at what is now called Sydney to set up a penal colony, it was the beginning of a long history of settlement. Migrants arriving with the First Fleet and subsequent ships were mainly English convicts and free settlers. The latter included Italians, Greeks, people from other parts of Europe and Malays. The gold rushes in the latter years of the 1800s attracted a large number of people from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and China. Afghans also came at this time, bringing camels with them for inland exploration.

Early Japanese settlers started the pearling industry in Australia. Large-scale migration began after the Second World War and continues today. The resettlement of displaced persons and refugees has seen migrants come from Britain, many parts of Europe and the Middle East. After the abolition of the White Australia policy, migrants also came from many parts of Asia. More recent patterns show more people coming from Africa.

Society

There is no class system in Australia. Australia is demonstrably egalitarian—for example, a train driver, Ben Chifley, became Prime Minister—and Australians are inclusive, with immigrants and refugees accepted from more than 200 countries and around a quarter of the population overseas-born.

Mateship—the understanding that people will look after each other in difficult times—emerged as a national characteristic in the1800s. This social touchstone featured in popular stories of resilience against hardship shown by pioneering Europeans. It has been a hallmark of the gold-diggers of the 1850s, Australian soldiers in war and individual and community responses to tragedies brought on by natural disasters, such as cyclones, bushfires and floods.

Australia has a high level of employment. Most people who wish to join the paid workforce can find a job. For example, the proportion of the Australian labour force which was employed at the time of the 2006 census was 94.8 per cent. The number employed full-time was 60.7 per cent while the proportion employed part-time was 27.9 per cent.

Education is important to Australians and is compulsory until 15 or 16 years of age (depending on the state or territory of residence). Approximately 58 per cent of Australians between the ages of 25 and 64 have vocational or tertiary qualifications and the tertiary graduation rate of 49 per cent is the highest among OECD countries. Australians have won ten Nobel Prizes, in the sciences, medicine and literature. Sport is an important activity for Australians, assisted by a climate that favours outdoor activities, with 23.5 per cent of people over the age of 15 regularly participating in organised sporting activities.

Demographics

Australia is the world’s smallest continent and sixth-largest country. Despite its wide spaces, Australians are mostly urban dwellers. More than 80 per cent live in big coastal cities, particularly in southern areas of the continent. The largest city, Sydney, has a population of 3 645 153 over 1771 square kilometres—a density of 2058 people per square kilometre. In contrast, in the whole of the largest state, Western Australia (which has approximately the same area as Greenland), the population density is less than one person per square kilometre. The preliminary estimated resident population of Australia at 30 September 2007 was 21 097 100 persons. This was an increase of 318 500 since 30 September 2006, an annual population growth rate of 1.53 per cent—Australia’s fastest annual growth rate since 1989 when it was 1.56 per cent.

There are two components to Australia’s population growth: natural increase and overseas migration. For the 12 months ended 30 September 2007, natural increase was 139 400 persons, an increase of 7.4 per cent (or 9600 persons) on the natural increase for the previous year. For the same 12 months, Australia recorded a preliminary net overseas migration estimate of 179 100 persons. Some 95 per cent of the population are Australian citizens. There are currently more than 900 000 permanent residents who are eligible to become Australian citizens. In the 2006 census, 70 per cent of Australian residents were born in Australia, a slight decrease from 2001. Of people born overseas, the most common countries of birth were England, New Zealand, China, Italy and Vietnam.

While English is the national language, Australians speak around 200 different languages and dialects, including 45 Indigenous languages. Seventy-nine per cent of people counted in the 2006 census spoke only English at home, while small proportions of the population spoke other languages at home. The most common languages other than English spoken at home were: Italian—316 890; Greek—252 220; Cantonese—244 553; Arabic—243 662; and Mandarin—220 601.

There are slightly more women than men in Australia. At the time of the 2006 census women made up 50.6 per cent of the population and men 49.4 per cent. There is no state religion in Australia but the majority of its people identify as Christian (approximately 13 million). There are some 400 000 Buddhists, 340 000 Muslims, 148 000 Hindus and approximately 88 000 Jews. In common with many other developed countries, Australia is experiencing a demographic shift towards an older population, with more retirees and fewer people of working age as a result of low fertility and increased life expectancy. The median age of the resident population was 37 years in 2006, up from 35 years in 2001. The proportion of the population aged 55–64 years increased from nine per cent to 11 per cent between the 2001 and 2006 censuses. Over the same period the proportion of children aged 14 or below in the population decreased slightly. However, there were about 16 500 more young children aged 0–4 years in 2006 than in 2001, indicating an increase in Australia’s birth rate.

There are about five million families in Australia. Couples with children continue to be the most common family type, although as a proportion of all families, this type decreased slightly to 45 per cent between 2001 and 2006. The proportion of couples without children is around 37 per cent. One parent families make up 15.8 per cent of the total families counted in the 2006 Census. Just under half (49.6 per cent) of the Australian resident population is married.

Further information

This fact sheet is also available to download ( PDF)

last updated May 2008