Demographics of Australia

Australia contains five cities (including their suburbs) that consist of over one million people. Most of Australia's population live close to coastlines.[7]

The earliest accepted timeline for the first arrivals of humans to the continent of Australia places this human migration to at least 65,000 years ago,[9] most probably from the islands of Indonesia and New Guinea.[10]

Captain James Cook claimed the east coast for Great Britain in 1770; the west coast was later settled by Britain also. At that time, the indigenous population was estimated to have been between 315,000 and 750,000,[11] divided into as many as 500 tribes speaking many different languages.

Between 1788 and the Second World War, the vast majority of settlers and immigrants came from the British Isles (principally England, Ireland and Scotland), although there was significant immigration from China and Germany during the 19th century. In the decades immediately following the Second World War, Australia received a large wave of immigration from across Europe, with many more immigrants arriving from Southern and Eastern Europe than in previous decades. Since the end of the White Australia policy in 1973, Australia has pursued an official policy of multiculturalism,[12] and there has been a large and continuing wave of immigration from across the world, with Asia being the largest source of immigrants in the 21st century.[13]

The Australian Bureau of Statistics no longer collects data on race, but does ask each Australian resident to nominate up to two ancestries each census.[14] These ancestry responses are classified into broad standardised ancestry groups.[15] In the 2021 census, the most commonly nominated individual ancestries as a proportion of the total population were:[16]

At the 2021 census, 3.2% of the Australian population identified as being Indigenous — Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders.[N 3][18] In 2020, 7.5% of births were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons up from 5.7% in 2010; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander fertility rates have stayed above replacement levels even as the nation's has declined rapidly.[19]

Although the ABS does not collect data on race and ethnic background, various studies have put together results of the census to determine the ethnic composition of Australia, the Australian Human Rights Commission has estimated the European population at 76% of the Australian population,[20] while a media diversity study put it at 72%, the non-European proportion was 21% and 23% respectively, and the Aboriginal Australian population at 3% in both.[21]

Immigration minister Andrew Giles has pledged to incorporate a question on ethnicity into the 2026 Australian census.[22]

Australian and foreign born population pyramid in 2021

In 2019, 30% of the Australian resident population, or 7,529,570 people, were born overseas.[23]

Australia's population has quadrupled since the end of World War I,[24] much of this increase from immigration. Australia has the world's eighth-largest immigrant population, with immigrants accounting for 30% of the population, a higher proportion than in any other nation with a population of over 10 million.[23][25] Most immigrants are skilled,[26] but the immigration quota includes categories for family members and refugees.[26]

The following table shows Australia's population by country of birth as estimated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2021. It shows only countries or regions or birth with a population of over 100,000 residing in Australia.

Australia has historically been a majority Christian, and Christian-influenced nation: the first census Australia held in 1901 had the Christian population at 96.1% of the population. In every census since 1991 this number has continued to drop, with it being under half of the population by the 2021 census.

At the 2021 Census, 38.9% of the population identified as having "no religion",[16] up from 15.5% in 2001.[29] The largest religion is Christianity (43.9% of the population).[16] The largest Christian denominations are the Roman Catholic Church (20% of the population) and the Anglican Church of Australia (9.8%). Multicultural immigration since the Second World War has led to the growth of non-Christian religions, the largest of which are Islam (3.2%), Hinduism (2.7%), Buddhism (2.4%), Sikhism (0.8%), and Judaism (0.4%).[16]

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.

Historically, Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology was the prevalent belief system in Australia until around 1840, when European Australians first outnumbered indigenous Australians. For a period, in the 19th and 20th centuries, Australia was majority Protestant with a large Catholic minority.[30][31] Catholics first outnumbered Anglicans in the 1986 census.[32] As a result of this history, while Australia has no official religion and "no religion" constitutes the largest group by religious identification, the various governments of Australia refer to the Christian God in their ceremonies, as do the various Australian Courts.[33]

As in many Western countries, the level of active participation in religious services is lower than would be indicated by the proportion of the population identifying themselves as affiliated with a religion; weekly attendance at Christian church services is about 1.5 million, or about 7.5% of the population.[34] Christian charitable organisations, hospitals and schools play a prominent role in welfare and education services. The Catholic education system is the second biggest sector after government schools, with more than 795,000 students (and around 20 per cent of all secondary school enrolments).[35]

Percentage of people who speak the English language at home in 2016

The vast majority of Australians speak English at home, with the exception of Aboriginal Australians and first-generation immigrants. Although Australia has no official language, English has always been the de facto national language and the only common tongue.[36] Australian English is a major variety of the language, with a distinctive accent and lexicon,[37] and differs slightly from other varieties of English in grammar and spelling.[38] General Australian serves as the standard variety.

At the 2021 census English was the only language spoken in the homes of 72% of the population. The next most common languages spoken at home are Mandarin Chinese (2.7%), Arabic (1.4%), Vietnamese (1.3%), Cantonese (1.2%), and Punjabi (0.9%).[18] Considerable proportions of first- and second-generation immigrants are bilingual.

Over 250 Indigenous Australian languages are thought to have existed at the time of first European contact; fewer than 20 are still in daily use by all age groups.[39][40] About 110 others are spoken exclusively by older people.[40] 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.[41]

Australia has its own sign language, Auslan. It is the main language of about 5,500 deaf people.[42]

Indigenous Australians as a percentage of the population as of the 2011 census

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.[10]

Dutch navigators landed on the coasts of modern Western Australia and Queensland several times during the 17th century. Captain James Cook wrote that he claimed the east coast for Great Britain in 1770 while standing on Possession Island off the west coast of Cape York Peninsula. The west coast was later settled by Britain also. At that time, the indigenous population was estimated to have numbered between as few as 315,000 and as many as 1,100,000,[11][43] divided into many tribes speaking many different languages. In the 2011 census, 495,757 respondents declared they were Aboriginal, 31,407 declared they were Torres Strait Islander, and a further 21,206 declared they were both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.[44]

Today, most of Australia's Indigenous population live on the east coast of Australia, where almost 60% of Indigenous Australians live in New South Wales (208,476) and Queensland (188,954) which roughly represents 2–5% of those state's populations. The Northern Territory has an Indigenous population of almost 70,000, which represents about 30% of the total Northern Territory population.

European Australians from 1947 to 1966 when racial data was collected in the country

Population estimates in the table below do not include the Aboriginal population before 1961. Estimates of Aboriginal population before European settlement range from 300,000 to one million, with archaeological finds indicating a sustainable maximum population of around 750,000.[54] Where available, actual population figures from census years are included.

Historical population of Australia

Current vital statistics

Period	Live births	Deaths	Natural increase
January - March 2022	76,800	45,100	31,700
January - March 2023	74,900	45,500	29,400
Difference	-1,900 (-2.48%)	+400 (+0.89%)	-2,300

In 2012, the total fertility rate of Australian-born women was 1.94, while for overseas-born women, it was 1.81,[79] while in 2013, it was 1.91 and 1.79 respectively.[80] In 2017, TFR was 1.68 for overseas women (overseas father 1.73) and 1.78 for native women (native father 1.69).

Life expectancy at birth from 1921 to 2015

Life expectancy in Australia since 1885

Sources: Our World In Data and the United Nations.

1921–1949

1920s		1921	1922	1923	1924	1925	1926	1927	1928	1929
		61.0	62.9	61.7	62.5	63.2	62.9	62.8	62.9	63.1
1930s	1930	1931	1932	1933	1934	1935	1936	1937	1938	1939
	64.9	65.3	65.6	65.4	64.8	65.1	65.2	65.8	65.8	65.8
1940s	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949
	66.2	66.1	65.9	66.4	68.0	68.5	68.0	68.6	68.5	69.1

Source: Our World in Data[82]

Life expectancy in Australia since 1960 by gender

1950–2015

Period	Life expectancy in Years	Period	Life expectancy in Years
1950–1955	69.4	1985–1990	76.2
1955–1960	70.4	1990–1995	77.7
1960–1965	70.9	1995–2000	78.8
1965–1970	70.8	2000–2005	80.3
1970–1975	71.8	2005–2010	81.5
1975–1980	73.6	2010–2015	82.3
1980–1985	75.1

Source: UN World Population Prospects[83]

As of March 2023, the population growth rate was 1.6%.[84] This rate was based on estimates of (April 2019):[1]

• one birth every 1 minute and 41 seconds,
• one death every 3 minutes and 20 seconds,
• one migrant person arriving to live in Australia every 56 seconds,
• one Australian resident leaving Australia to live overseas every 1 minute and 53 seconds, leading to
• an overall total population increase of one person every 1 minute and 13 seconds.

Much of the data that follows has been derived from the CIA World Factbook[73] and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, through censuses.

Population

Estimated resident population of Australia since 1981

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

26,818,100 (as of 25 October 2023)[1]

23,470,145 (July 2018 est.)

23,232,413 (July 2017 est.)

21,262,641 (July 2009 – CIA World Factbook)

Population pyramid of Australia from 1950 to 2020

Age structure

Australian babies: 0 year olds as a fraction of total persons, in Australia, according to the 2011 census results.

Australian babies: 0–4 year olds as a fraction of total persons, in Australia, according to the 2011 census results

0–14 years: 17.75% (male 2,138,080 /female 2,027,583)

15–24 years: 12.62% (male 1,520,528 /female 1,442,461)

25–54 years: 41.35% (male 4,944,587 /female 4,760,752)

55–64 years: 11.84% (male 1,379,681 /female 1,398,177)

65 years and over: 16.44% (male 1,786,595 /female 2,071,701) (2018 est.)

0–14 years: 17.8% (male 2,122,139/female 2,012,670)

15–24 years: 12.79% (male 1,524,368/female 1,446,663)

25–54 years: 41.45% (male 4,903,130/female 4,725,976)

55–64 years: 11.83% (male 1,363,331/female 1,384,036)

65 years and over: 16.14% (male 1,736,951/female 2,013,149) (2017 est.)

Median age

Map of the median age of Australians by Statistical Local Area in the 2011 census

total: 38.8 years. Country comparison to the world: 58th

male: 38.1 years

female: 39.7 years (2018 est.)

Total: 36.9 years[85]

Male: 36.6 years

Female: 38.1 years (2009 est.)

• Jupp, James. The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins (2002)
• O'Farrell, Patrick. The Irish in Australia: 1798 to the Present Day (3rd ed. Cork University Press, 2001)
• Wells, Andrew, and Theresa Martinez, eds. Australia's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook (ABC-CLIO, 2004)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Demographics of Australia.

• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Year Book Australia, 2009–10
• Australian population: ethnic origins (DOC)
• Build Australian population graph 1960 – 2013 (World Bank data)
• Build Australian population projection graph till 2100 (United Nation data)
• Build Australian life expectancy at birth graph 1950 – 2013 (United Nation data)
• Australia's population clock