Demographics of Australia

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Demographics of Australia
Indicator	Rank	Measure
Economy
GDP (PPP) per capita	16th	$32,938
GNP	18th	$35,900
Unemployment rate	↓ 57th	4.30%
CO2 emissions	12th	18t†
Electricity consumption	16th	200.70TWh
Economic freedom	4th	82.0
Politics
Human Development Index	4th	0.965
Political freedom	1st*	1
Corruption (A higher score means less (perceived) corruption.)	↓ 7th	8.7
Press freedom	28th	8.79
Society
Literacy Rate	21st	99%
Broadband uptake	17th	13.8%
Beer consumption	4th	109.9 L†
Health
Life Expectancy	5th	81.2
Birth rate	148th	12.14‡
Fertility rate	137th	1.81††
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 features of the population of Australia, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

The demographics of Australia covers basic statistics, most populous cities, ethnicity and religious affiliation. The population of Australia is growing at a rate of 1.7% per year,^[1] and, as of the end of 2008, was officially estimated to be approximately 21.5 million.^[2] Australia is the 53rd most populous country in the world and its population is concentrated in urban areas.

Contents 1 Current Australia population trends 2 Mosaic 2008 3 Indigenous population 4 General Demographic statistics 4.1 Population 4.2 Age structure[6] 4.3 Median age 4.4 Population growth rate 4.5 International Comparison 4.6 Sex ratio 4.7 Infant mortality rate 4.8 Life expectancy at birth 4.9 Total fertility rate 4.10 HIV/AIDS 4.11 Country of Birth 4.12 Ethnicities of Australian population 4.13 Religion and belief 4.14 Languages 4.15 Literacy 4.16 Nationality 5 Historical population estimates 6 See also 6.1 General 6.2 Ethnicities 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Current Australia population trends

Australia's population has grown from an estimated population of about 350,000 at the time of British Settlement in 1788 to a current population of approximately 21,618,330, due to further migration (see Australian Immigration) 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.

Although Australia has scarcely more than two persons per square kilometre of total land area, this raw figure is highly misleading: most of the continent is desert or semi-desert and of limited agricultural value. In consequence, Australia is one of the world's most urbanised countries. Australia is also the driest continent on Earth.

[edit] Mosaic 2008

Using the most up-to-date data from the 2006 Australian Census in addition to eleven other sources, Mosaic 2008 (a geo-demographic profiling tool licensed by Pacific Micromarketing) has revealed the following statistics regarding emerging social trends:

• Single-person urban dwellings (also known as 'SPUDs') are now the most common - 25% of dwellings are for people living alone
• There are now more unmarried women than married – 51.4% are now unmarried leading to a society of 'Freemales'
• About 40% of Australians now have at least one parent born overseas, with Africa being one of the fastest growing immigrant sources. Largely these are white immigrants from South Africa and the former Rhodesia.
• Australia’s largest demographic – the baby boomers – are retiring en masse, with high disposable incomes. Key figure: the proportion of people aged 65+ will double within 30 years, from 12.5% currently to 25%

[edit] Indigenous population

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 most propably from the islands of Indonesia and PNG.^[3] These first inhabitants of Australia were originally hunter-gatherer 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 (91 km²) in the arid interior. Food procurement was usually a matter for the nuclear family and was very demanding, since 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 sailors in 1601, and Dutch navigators landed on the forbidding coast of modern Western Australia several times during the 17th century. Captain James Cook claimed it for Great Britain in 1770. At that time, the native population was estimated to have been between 315,000 and 750,000, ^[4] divided into as many as 500 tribes^{[citation needed]} speaking many different languages. In the 2006 Census, 407,700 respondents declared they were Aboriginal, 29,512 declared they were Torres Strait Islander, and a further 17,811 declared they were both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.[1]. 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^[4].

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.

[edit] General Demographic statistics

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

[edit] Population

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

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)[2]

[edit] Age structure^[6]

0-14 years: 19.6%

15-64 years: 67.5%

65 years and over: 13%

[edit] Median age

Total: 36.6 years^[6]

Male: 36 years

Female: 37.7 years (2006 est.)

[edit] Population growth rate

As of the end of June 2008 the population growth rate was 1.7%.^[1] This rate was based on estimates of:^[2]

• one birth every 1 minute and 51 seconds,
• one death every 3 minutes and 48 seconds,
• a net gain of one international migrant every 2 minutes and 38 seconds leading to
• an overall total population increase of one person every 1 minutes and 31 seconds.

In 2005 the estimated rates were:

• Birth rate - 12.26 births/1,000 population
• Mortality rate - 6.3 deaths/1,000 population
• Net migration rate - 3.91 migrant(s)/1,000 population.

At the time of Australian Federation in 1901, the rate of natural increase 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, 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. 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 rose to 1.81, one of the highest rate in the OECD, 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.^[6]

[edit] International Comparison

For the year ended 30 June 2008, Australia's population growth rate was 1.7 percent, almost 50 percent higher than the world average of 1.2 percent.

0.1% Japan

0.3% Greece and Sweden

0.6% China, Thailand and France

0.8% Canada

0.9% USA

1.0% New Zealand

1.2% World Average

1.6% India

1.7% Australia

2.2% PNG

^[7]

[edit] Sex ratio

At birth:1.05 male(s)/female

Under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female

Total population: 0.988 male(s)/female^[6]

[edit] Infant mortality rate

Total: 4.63 deaths/1,000 live births

Male: 5.02 deaths/1,000 live births

Female: 4.22 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

[edit] Life expectancy at birth

Male: 78.5 years

Female: 83.5 years (2003-2005, ABS [3])

[edit] Total fertility rate

1.93 children born/woman (2007) [4]

For more detailed regionwise TFR details see Birth rate and fertility rate in Australia.

[edit] HIV/AIDS

Adult prevalence rate: 0.1% (2003 est.)

People living with HIV/AIDS: 30,000 (2007 est.)-majority in NSW.

Deaths: less than 200 (2003 est.)[5]

[edit] Country of Birth

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in mid-2006 there were 4,956,863 residents in Australia who were born outside Australia, representing 24% of the Australian resident population.^[8] The Australian-resident population comprises people born in these countries:

Country of Birth	Estimated Resident Population[8]
United Kingdom	1,153,264
New Zealand	476,719
Italy	220,469
People's Republic of China (Excluding SARs and Taiwan Province)	203,143
Vietnam	180,352
India	153,579
Philippines	135,619
Greece	125,849
South Africa	118,816
Germany	114,921
Malaysia	103,947
Netherlands	86,950
Lebanon	86,599
Hong Kong	76,303
Sri Lanka	70,908
Serbia and  Montenegro	68,879
Indonesia	67,952
United States	64,832
Poland	59,221
Fiji	58,815
Ireland	57,338
Croatia	56,540
Singapore	49,819
South Korea	49,141
Malta	48,978
Macedonia	48,577
Iraq	40,400
Egypt	38,782
Turkey	37,556
Canada	33,198
Thailand	32,747
Taiwan (Province of China)	31,258
Japan	29,469
Sudan	29,282
Cambodia	28,175
Bosnia and Herzegovina	27,328
Papua New Guinea	26,302
Chile	26,204
Iran	25,659
Hungary	23,065
Russian Federation	21,436
Cyprus	21,149
Zimbabwe	21,142
Afghanistan	21,140
Austria	20,214
France	20,054
Pakistan	19,768
Mauritius	19,375
Samoa	17,822
Portugal	17,382

For more information about immigration see Australian Immigration.

[edit] Ethnicities of Australian population

Australia until the 1970s was a predominantly European society , then new immigration policies changed the scope of nationalities immigrating to the Australian continent which brought thousands of new immigrants from Asia, Eastern Europe the middle east and the Americas . Australians today in 2009 are of mixed origin and Australia is today one of the most diverse societies in the world. The majority of the estimated 21 million Australians are descended from pre-Federation European settlers and post-Federation immigrants from Europe, with around 90% of Australia's population being of European descent. Over 8% of the current population is of Asian descent (predominantly Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino and Indian)^[9]. People of mixed indigenous Australian descent and indigenous Australian descent make up about 450000 individuals .^[4].

For generations, the vast majority of both colonial-era settlers and post-Federation immigrants came almost exclusively from the United Kingdom, during the goldrush people from several countries also immigrated to Australia. 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. Non-European immigration, mostly from Asia and the Middle East, increased significantly from the 1970s onwards; due in large part to the abolition of the White Australia Policy.

In the 2006 Australian Census participants were asked "what is the person's ancestry?" and were able to give up to two answers. Proportionate to the Australian resident population, the most commonly nominated ancestries were:^[9]

• Australian (37.13%)
• English (31.65%)
• Irish (9.08%)
• Scottish (7.56%)
• Italian (4.29%)
• German (4.09%)
• Chinese (3.37%)
• Greek (1.84%)
• Dutch (1.56%)
• Indian (1.18%)
• Lebanese (0.92%)
• Vietnamese (0.87%)
• Polish (0.82%)
• New Zealander (0.81%)
• Filipino (0.81%)
• Maltese (0.77%)
• Croatian (0.59%)
• Australian Aboriginal (0.58%)
• Welsh (0.57%)
• French (0.5%)
• Serbian (0.48%)
• Maori (0.47%)
• Spanish (0.42%)
• Macedonian (0.42%)
• South African (0.4%)
• Sinhalese (0.37%)
• Hungarian (0.3%)
• Russian (0.3%)
• Turkish (0.3%)
• American (0.28%)

[edit] Religion and belief

25.8% Roman Catholic, 18.7% Anglican, 19.4% Other Christian

2.1% Buddhist, 1.7% Muslim, 0.4% Jewish, 2.0% other, 18.7% No Religion, 11.2% Not described. (2006 census)

The category of "No Religion" includes non-theistic beliefs such as humanism, atheism, agnosticism and rationalism. A fifth sub-category is "No Religion - nfd" ("nfd" = no further definition). The Australian Bureau of Statistics does not provide statistics on how many people belong in each sub-category on "No Religion".

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 church worship is much lower than would be indicated by the proportion of Christians indicated in the ABS statistics; weekly attendance at church services is about 1.5 million, about 7.5% of the population.^[10]

[edit] Languages

De facto national language: English

Most common languages other than English: Italian, Greek, German, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Chinese languages, Indian languages, Arabic language, Macedonian and Croatian.

Indigenous: Australian Aboriginal languages, Australian Deaf Sign Language

• See [6]

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 + Tagalog	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	23,526
Punjabi	23,164
Persian	22,841
Hungarian	21,565
Bengali	20,223
Urdu	19,288
Afrikaans	16,806
Bosnian	15,743

[edit] Literacy

Definition: age 15 and over can read and write

Total population: 99%

Male: 99%

Female: 99% (2003 est.)

[edit] Nationality

• noun: Australian(s)
• adjective: Australian

[edit] Historical population estimates

Year	Population	Five Year  % change
1901	3,788,1230	-0
1906	4,059,0830	7.20
1911	4,489,5450	10.60
1916	4,943,1730	10.10
1921	5,455,1360	10.40
1926	6,056,3600	11.00
1931	6,526,4850	7.80
1936	6,778,3720	3.40
1941	7,109,8980	4.90
1946	7,465,1570	5.00
1951	8,421,7750	12.80
1956	9,425,5630	11.90
1961	*10,548,2670	11.90
1966	11,599,4980	10.00
1971	13,067,2650	12.70
1976	14,033,0830	7.40
1981	14,923,2600	6.30
1986	16,018,3500	7.30
1991	17,284,0360	12.80
1996	18,310,7140	5.90
2001	19,413,2400	6.00

^[11]

*Includes estimates of the Indigenous population from 1961 onwards.

[edit] See also

[edit] General

• Birth rate and fertility rate in Australia
• Homelessness in Australia
• Immigration to Australia
• List of most common surnames#Australia

[edit] Ethnicities

• African Australian
• Anglo Celtic Australian
• Asian Australian
• Italian Australian
• Greek Australian
• Latin American Australian

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "2006 edition".

Australian Bureau of Statistics, 3101.0 Australian Demographic Statistics

[edit] External links

• Australian population: ethnic origins
• Stock of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year
• Current estimated resident population of Australia Australian Bureau of Statistics
• Australian Population Map

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