Demographics of Australia

File:Population- Australia, 1961-2004.svg

Population, 1961-2004

The demographics of Australia cover basic statistics, most populous cites, ethnicity and religious affiliation. The population of Australia is growing at a rate of 1.2% per year and officially reached 20 million people on 4 December 2003. [1] Australia is the 52nd most populous country in the world and its population is characterised as largely homogenous, urban and predominantly Christian.

Current (2006) Demographic data

Population pyramid

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

Population

20,721,793 (December 24th 2006 - ABS)

Age structure

0-14 years: 19.6% (male 2,031,313/female 1,936,802)

15-64 years: 67.3% (male 6,881,863/female 6,764,709)

65 years and over: 13.1% (male 1,170,589/female 1,478,806) (2006 est.)

An animated population pyramid [2] illustrating the changing structure and ageing of the Australian population from 1971 onwards is available on the Australian Bureau of Statistics website. Go to http://www.abs.gov.au/, select Australia's population then Animated Population Pyramids. Pyramids are also available for each Australian State, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory.

Median age

Total: 36.9 years

Male: 3.7 years

Female: 37.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate

File:Population Growth- Australia 1800-2004.svg

Annual population growth

1.3% (March 2006 - ABS)

In January 2007, the population growth rate is based on estimates of:

• one birth every 1 minute and 59 seconds,
• one death every 3 minutes and 54 seconds,
• a net gain of one international migrant every 4 minutes and 47 seconds leading to
• an overall total population increase of one person every 2 minutes and 11 seconds. (ABS Population clock)

In 2005 the estimated rates were:

• birth rate - 12.26 births/1,000 population
• death 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 the Second World War, in the mid to late 1940s, 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.

Since 1901, the crude death rate has fallen from about 12.2 deaths per 1,000 population to 6.7 in 2000. [3]

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: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

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.)

Life expectancy at birth

Male: 78.5 years

Female: 83.5 years (2003-2005, ABS [4])

Total fertility rate

1.81 children born/woman (2005, ABS [5])

HIV/AIDS

Adult prevalence rate: 0.1% (2003 est.)

People living with HIV/AIDS: 14,000 (2003 est.)

Deaths: less than 200 (2003 est.)

Country of Birth

76.9% Australian born, 23.1% foreign born. For more information about immigration see Australian Immigration.

The most commonly declared foreign countries of birth amongst respondents were:

United Kingdom : 1,036,253 (5.8%)

New Zealand : 355,765 (2.0%)

Italy : 218,692 (1.2%)

Vietnam : 154,770 (0.9%)

China : 142,872 (0.8%)

Greece : 116,330 (0.7%)

Germany : 108,251 (0.6%)

Philippines : 104,018 (0.6%)

India : 95,444 (0.5%)

Netherlands : 83,299 (0.5%)

Collectively 150,966 respondents (0.9%) were born in countries now known as Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and the Republic of Macedonia.

Immigration from (East Asia, South Asia and the Middle East) has increased since the 1970s. Australia has also received small but growing numbers of Africans, Latin Americans, those from former Soviet countries of Eastern Europe and even some American immigrants.

Data derived from enumerated 2001 Census data.

Indigenous populations

In the 2001 Census, 366,436 respondents declared they were Aboriginal (2.07% of all respondents), 26,088 declared they were Torres Strait Islander (0.15%) and 17,636 declared they were both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (0.10%).

Ethnic groups

Like other countries such as the United States, Canada, and Argentina, Australia was founded by large waves of foreign immigration and settlement, and includes a large variety of ethnic groups. The vast majority of the population, around 92%, is of European descent.

Most of the estimated 20.7 million Australians are descended from nineteenth- and twentieth-century European settlers, the majority from Great Britain and Ireland. The term Anglo-Celtic is commonly used in Australia to refer to a person whose ethnic origin was in the British Isles e.g. English, Irish, Scottish etc. Anglo-Celtic Australians comprise around 74% of the population.

There have also been significant waves of Italian, Greek, South Slavic, German, Dutch and Polish migration from the 1940s onwards. The second generation largely assimilated into the Anglo-Celtic majority, but some cultural traditions and ethnic communities have been preserved in some urban and regional areas.

Asian Australians are the largest non-European group, and also the fastest growing. Asian Australians were 7.96% of the Australian population in 2001. Most are Chinese, Vietnamese, Lebanese or Indian, but others are Afghani, Japanese, Korean, Filipino and Laotian. Most Asian-Australians are descendants of immigrants who came after 1970, but a few Australian-Chinese are third or fourth generation, as their ancestors arrived in the late 19th century.

Aboriginal numbers remain small, yet they stand now at 1.95% of the population, compared to the Aboriginal population of 2001, which numbered 1.04%. Some 250,000 mixed White/Aboriginal Australians either classified as "white" or Aborigine.

Religions and beliefs

Roman Catholic 26.6%, Anglican 20.7%, other Christian 20.7%, 2.1% Buddhist, 1.5% Muslims, 0.4% Jewish, 0.8% other, No Religion 15.5%, Not described 11.7%

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.

Languages

De facto national language: English

Most common languages other than English: Chinese languages, Italian, Greek, Indian languages, Vietnamese, Filipino,

Indigenous: Australian Aboriginal languages, Australian Deaf Sign Language

• See [6]

Literacy

Definition: age 15 and over can read and write

Total population: 99%

Male: 99%

Female: 99% (2003 est.)

Historical population estimates

Year	Population	Five Year  % change
1901	3,788,123	-
1906	4,059,083	7.2
1911	4,489,545	10.6
1916	4,943,173	10.1
1921	5,455,136	10.4
1926	6,056,360	11.0
1931	6,526,485	7.8
1936	6,778,372	3.4
1941	7,109,898	4.9
1946	7,465,157	5.0
1951	8,421,775	12.8
1956	9,425,563	11.9
1961	10,548,267*	11.9
1966	11,599,498	10.0
1971	13,067,265	12.7
1976	14,033,083	7.4
1981	14,923,260	6.3
1986	16,018,350	7.3
1991	17,284,036	7.9
1996	18,310,714	5.9
2001	19,413,240	6.0

* Includes estimates of the Indigenous population from 1961 onwards.

Indigenous population

The Demographics of Australia can be considered as starting with the initial migrations of peoples ancestral to the present-day indigenous Australians to the continent of Australia. The earliest widely accepted timeline for these first arrivals places this prehistoric human migration at least 40,000–45,000 years ago; other less widely supported evidence suggests human habitation of the continent by 50,000–60,000 years ago or even earlier. 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 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 around half a million, divided in as many as 500 tribes speaking many different languages. The Aboriginal population currently numbers more than 300,000, representing about 1.7% of the population. 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.

Current Australia population trends

File:Australian population.PNG

The trend of population growth in Australia. The rate of population growth increased following the discovery of gold in 1851 and following World War II.

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 nearly twenty-one million. This is largely as a result of overseas migration (see Australian Immigration).

Emigration now also plays a role in changing Australian demographics. The term, Australian diaspora, refers to the 850,000 Australian citizens who today live outside Australia.

The current level of imigration, however remains far greater than the rate of emigration.

Although Australia has scarcely more than two persons per square kilometer 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 urbanized countries: 91% of Australia's population lives in urban areas.

Religion and belief

Main article: Religion in Australia

In 1983, the High Court of Australia defined religion as a complex of beliefs and practices which point to a set of values and an understanding of the meaning of existence.

At the time of European settlement, the Aboriginal inhabitants followed their own religions which were animistic in nature, involving beliefs in spirits behind the forces of nature, and the influence of ancestral spirit beings.

During the 1800s, European settlers brought their traditional churches to Australia. These included the Church of England (now the Anglican Church), and the Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Congregationalist and Baptist churches.

Section 116 of the 1900 Act to constitute the Commonwealth of Australia (Australian Constitution) provides that:

The Commonwealth of Australia shall not make any law establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.

With the exception of a small but significant Lutheran population of Germanic descent, Australian society in 1901 was predominantly Anglo-Celtic, with 40% of the population being Anglican (then Church of England), 23% Catholic, 34% other Christian and about 1% professing non-Christian religions.

Further waves of migration helped to reshape the profile of Australia's religious affiliations over subsequent decades. The impact of migration from Europe in the aftermath of World War II led to increases in affiliates of the Orthodox Churches, the establishment of Reformed bodies, growth in the number of Catholics (largely from Italian migration) and Jews (Holocaust survivors), and the creation of ethnic parishes among many other denominations. More recently, immigration from South-East Asia and the Middle East has expanded Buddhist and Muslim numbers considerably, and increased the ethnic diversity of existing Christian denominations.

In response to the 2001 Census of Population and Housing question, Australians' stated religious affiliations were: 27% Catholic, 21% Anglican, 21% other Christian denominations and 5% non-Christian religions. 16% of all Australians stated they had no religion (Humanists, atheists, agnostics and rationalists), and the remainder did not adequately respond to the question to enable classification of their religion.

A question on religious affiliation has been asked in every census taken in Australia, with the voluntary nature of this question having been specifically stated since 1933. In 1971, the instruction 'if no religion, write none' was introduced. This saw a seven-fold increase from the previous census year in the percentage of Australians stating they had no religion. Since 1971, this percentage has progressively increased to about 16% in 1996 and 2001.

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics, 3101.0 Australian Demographic Statistics

See also

• Immigration to Australia

External links

• Current estimated resident population of Australia Australian Bureau of Statistics