Australia Demogrpahics
Facts: Demographics, Geography, Government, History
Australia's estimated resident population at June 2003 was just under 19.9 million, an increase of 1.2% over the previous year. This figure has increased by 12.5% over the past decade. Australia's growth rate of 1.2% for the 12 months to June 2003 was the same as the overall world growth rate.
When compared with other countries, Australia's population growth rate was similar to New Zealand (1.1%), Canada and Thailand (each 1.0%), higher than Hong Kong (0.7%) and the United States of America (0.9%), considerably higher than Japan and Germany (each 0.1%) and the United Kingdom (0.3%), and well below the growth rates for Papua New Guinea (2.4%) and Singapore (1.9%).
Australia's estimated resident population of 19.9 million at June 2003 has grown by over 2.1 million during the past decade. The growth of Australia's population has two components: natural increase (the number of births minus the number of deaths) and net overseas migration (net permanent and long-term migration plus the migration adjustment). Since Federation in 1901, Australia's population has increased by over 16.1 million persons. The main component of population growth in Australia has been natural increase, which has contributed about two-thirds of the total growth since the beginning of the 20th century.
Most of Australia’s population is concentrated in two widely separated coastal regions. By far the larger of these, in terms of area and population, lies in the south-east and east. The smaller of the two regions is in the south-west of the continent. In both coastal regions the population is concentrated in urban centres, particularly the state and territory capital cities.
Australia's population density at 30 June 2003 was 2.6 people per square kilometre, compared with 2.4 people per square kilometre in 1998. The Australian Capital Territory had the highest population density of the states and territories at June 2003 with 137 people per square kilometre (reflecting the fact that the city of Canberra constitutes a large proportion of the Australian Capital Territory's area), followed by Victoria with 22 people per square kilometre. The Northern Territory had a population density of only 0.1 people per square kilometre, the lowest of all the states and territories (reflecting more recent settlement, distance from areas settled earlier, large arid areas and, perhaps, climate).
Population density at June 2003 was highest in the city centres, particularly in the Sydney Statistical Division, where the three most densely populated Statistical Local Areas (SLAs) in Australia were located. These were Sydney (C) - Remainder (8,100 people per square kilometre), Waverley (A) (6,700 people per square kilometre) and North Sydney (5,700 people per square kilometre). Fourth on the list, and the most densely populated SLA in Victoria, was Port Phillip (C) - St. Kilda, with 5,500 people per square kilometre.
The Indigenous population at 30 June 2001 was 458,500 of which 134,900 (29%) lived in New South Wales, 125,900 (28%) in Queensland, 65,900 (14%) in Western Australia and 56,900 (12%) in the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory had the largest proportion of its population who were Indigenous - 29% compared with 4% or less for all other states and the Australian Capital Territory.
Birthplace
Australia's population has increased each year since the end of World War II, due to a combination of high post-war fertility and high levels of migration. In 1901, 23% of Australia's population was overseas-born. In 1947 the proportion of the population born overseas had declined to 10%. The creation of a national government immigration portfolio in 1945 accompanied a gradual increase in the proportion of overseas-born Australians and by 1992 this proportion had increased to 23%. In 2002 the number of overseas-born Australians had passed 4.5 million, remaining at 23% of the total population.
The diversity of countries of birth has increased substantially over the years. Patterns of immigration have also changed. For the last few decades, the Italy, Greece and Netherlands-born populations in Australia have been declining. The major migration flows from these countries occurred immediately after World War II and there has been relatively little migration from these countries more recently.
The 2001 census showed 26% of persons born in Australia had at least one overseas-born parent, that is, they were second generation Australians. Of Australian-born children with at least one overseas-born parent 43% had both parents born overseas, 35% had their father born overseas and 22% their mother born overseas. The variety and size of second generation populations reflect past migration and intermarriage patterns.
Source: Australian bureau of Statistics. For more information on Australian Demographics visit www.abs.gov.au more
