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Australia's cultural diversity

Diversity of birthplace

• Indigenous Australians
• Overseas-born
• Ancestry
• Refugees

Australians come from over 200 countries according to the 2006 Census. Each of these groups has its own cultural diversity as a result of history, regional differences, internal and external population movements, as well as variations related to factors such as class, gender, intermarriage and urban and rural environments.

Indigenous Australians

The term Indigenous is a term that has evolved through international law to acknowledge the particular relationship of the original inhabitants of a country or geographical region to their lands. In Australia, the term Indigenous refers to people who are of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin. The Indigenous community of Australia is diverse and comprised of a wide range of cultural groups speaking many different languages.

The following data is derived from the 2006 Census:

• 455,031 people or 2.3% of the Australian population identified as being of Indigenous origin. Between the 2001 and 2006 Censuses, the Indigenous population increased by 11% or 45,000 people.

• Of this group, 407,698 people (89.6%) stated they were of Aboriginal origin only and 29,517 people (6.5%) reported to be of Torres Strait Islander origin only. 17,816 people (3.9%) reported to be of both origins.

• The States/Territories with the highest Indigenous populations are New South Wales (138,506 or 30.4% of the total Indigenous population of Australia), Queensland (127,580 or 28%), Western Australia (58,709 or 12.9%) and the Northern Territory (53,665 or 11.8%).

• Almost 30% of people in the Northern Territory are of Indigenous origin. In all other States/Territories^[3], Indigenous Australians comprise less than 4% of total state populations.

• Most Torres Strait Islander people (62.2%) live in Queensland. 16.2% live in New South Wales and 7.5% live in Victoria.

Overseas born

The birthplace of overseas-born residents gives some indication of the diversity of ethnicity of a population. When Australian born residents with one or both parents born overseas are combined with overseas born a fuller picture of cultural diversity emerges.

The following data is derived from the 2006 Census:

• 22.2% of Australians were born overseas and 70.9% were born in Australia.^[4]

• 14% of people were born in non-English speaking countries compared to 11.5% who were born in English speaking countries^[5] other than Australia.

• The largest overseas born group comprised people born in the United Kingdom^[6] (1,038,162 people or 5.2% of the population) followed by New Zealand (389,467 people or 2.0%), then China^[7] (206,593 people or 1.04%) and Italy (199,124 people or 1.0%). No other country accounted for more than 1%.

• The State with the largest number of overseas born (1,555,847 people) was New South Wales followed by Victoria (1,173,204 people) and Queensland (699,444 people). Western Australia had the highest proportion of overseas born residents (27.1%) excluding other territories^[8] (28.9%).

Top 30 birthplaces of the Australian population 2006

Ancestry

A person's ancestry, when used in conjunction with the person's birthplace, language and religion and birthplace of their parents, provides a good indication of their ethnic background. This is particularly useful for identifying distinct cultural groups such as Maoris and South Sea Islanders and groups which are spread across countries such as Kurds or Indians.

In the 2006 Census, respondents were asked to mark their ancestries back as far as two generations. Respondents were asked to report at least one ancestry, but no more than two.

The following data is derived from the 2006 Census:

• About 52% of respondents indicated that both parents were born in Australia.

• About 41% of respondents indicated that at least one of their parents was born overseas.

• About 29% of responses indicated that the respondent was of Australian ancestry.

• The most common ancestries other than Australian identified by respondents were English, Irish, Scottish, Italian and German. Other common ancestries identified were Chinese, Greek, Dutch and Indian.

Ancestry by birthplace of parents 2006

(a) This table represents responses to a multi-response question, the total responses count will not necessarily equal the total persons count.

Refugees

The information in this section is derived from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship fact sheets.

Refugees and people seeking residency in Australia for humanitarian reasons make up an important and sizeable component of the overall migrant intake. The Humanitarian Programme, a component of Australia's immigration program, assists people affected by international humanitarian crises including refugees and other people suffering human rights violations.

Since World War II, over 675,000 refugees and people in humanitarian need have been resettled in Australia including people from Eastern Europe, South East Asia, Central America, the Middle East and Africa.

According to Humanitarian Programme statistics for 2005-06^[9] :

• 14,144 visas were granted, the highest number of visas granted in ten years.
• Of these, 12,758 visas were granted to persons overseas and 1,386 visas were granted to people in Australia.
• 55.65% of visas were granted to people from Africa, 33.98% were granted to people from the Middle East and South West Asia and 9.88% were granted to people from the Asia/Pacific region. A small number of visas were also granted to people from Europe and the Americas.

 

Humanitarian programme, grants by category 1999-2006

 

Offshore resettlement programme, grants by region 1999-2006