People of Australia
Australia is the most sparsely populated of the inhabited continents. The estimated total population in 2005 was 20,090,437, giving the country an overall population density of 3 persons per square kilometre. Australia’s population grew at a relatively modest rate of about 1.3% annually from 1996 to 2001.
The country is heavily urbanized. Some 92% of the population lives in cities, about two-thirds in cities with 100,000 or more residents. The most rapidly growing areas are the coastal zones near and between the mainland capitals in the east, southeast, and southwest. In fact, four out of every five Australians live on the densely settled coastal plains that make up only about 3% of the country’s land area. The fastest-growing region is south-eastern Queensland.
Ethnic Groups
The United Kingdom and Ireland were traditionally the principal countries of origin for the majority of immigrants to Australia, reflecting the colonial history of the country. Since World War II (1939-1945), however, Australia’s population has become more ethnically diverse as people have immigrated from a wider range of countries. The proportion of residents born in other countries increased from 10% in 1947 to 24% in 2000. In 1947, 81% of new arrivals came principally from the United Kingdom and Ireland, and to a lesser extent from New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, and the United States. In 2000 only 39% of new arrivals came from those major English-speaking countries. From 1995 to 2000, people from New Zealand constituted 18% of total immigration; those from the United Kingdom, 11%; China, 8%; the former Yugoslavia (overwhelmingly refugees and asylum seekers), 7%; South Africa, 5%; and India, 4%. These six principal countries of birth represented about 53% of total immigration during those years. Since the early 1970s the countries of South, Southeast, and East Asia have become an increasingly important source of new arrivals, both settlers and long-term visitors (who are primarily in Australia for educational purposes). In 1999-2000, Asian-born arrivals made up 34% of all immigration to Australia.
People of European descent constitute about 91% of Australia’s population. Although most claim British or Irish heritage, there are also Italian, Dutch, Greek, German, and other European groups. People of Asian descent or birth constitute about 7% of the population; their countries of origin include China, Vietnam, India, the Philippines, and Malaysia. People of Middle Eastern origin make up an estimated 1.9% of the population. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people constitute about 2.2%; their proportion of the total population rose strongly during the 1990s. Also known as Indigenous Australians, these two groups are the original inhabitants of the region. Torres Strait Islander people, who are a Melanesian people, are indigenous to the islands of the Torres Strait, which lies between the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland and the island of New Guinea.
Indigenous Australians
The Aboriginal people are indigenous to Australia, meaning their ancestors were the first humans to settle and populate the continent. Aboriginal folklore claims that they were always in Australia. However, most anthropologists believe that they migrated from Southeast Asia at least 50,000 years ago, probably during a period when low sea levels permitted the simplest forms of land and water travel. A rise in sea level subsequently made Tasmania an island and caused some cultural separation between its peoples and those on the mainland.
These original Australians were essentially hunter-gatherers without domesticated animals, other than the dingo. They employed a type of “firestick farming” in which fire was used to clear areas so that fresh grazing grasses could grow, thereby attracting kangaroos and other game animals. Aboriginal people also may have harvested and dispersed selected seeds, perhaps creating extensive tracts of grassland in the process. There is evidence of careful damming and redirection of streams, and of swamp and lake outlets, possibly for fish farming.
Although the Aboriginal people were nomadic or seminomadic, their sense of place was exceptionally strong, and they had an intimate knowledge of the land. The most recent 3,000 years of Aboriginal history were characterized by accelerating changes based on the use of stone tools, the exploitation of new resources, the growth of the population, and the establishment of long-distance trading.
By the time of the first notable European settlement in 1788, Aboriginal people had developed cultural traits and ecological knowledge that showed an impressive adaptation to Australia’s challenging environments. They also had developed many complex variations between regional and even local communities. Estimates for the total Aboriginal population in 1788 vary. Current estimates based on archaeological research range between 500,000 and 1 million. About 250 distinct languages existed at the beginning of the 19th century. Bilingualism and multilingualism were common characteristics in several hundred Aboriginal groups. These groups—sometimes called tribes—were linguistically defined and territorially based.
During the first century of white settlement, there were dramatic declines in the Aboriginal population throughout Australia. The declines resulted from the introduction of diseases for which the Aboriginal people had little or no acquired immunity; social and cultural disruptions; brutal mistreatment; and reprisals for acts of organized resistance. By 1901 the Aboriginal population had declined to roughly 93,000. It then increased more than fourfold during the second half of the 20th century, partly in response to the wide acceptance of more relaxed interpretations of Aboriginal descent.
Until the 1960s, the Aboriginal population was mainly rural. Over the next two decades Aboriginal people began moving in greater numbers to urban areas. In many small, rural towns, Aboriginal families were viewed negatively as fringe dwellers. In the larger cities, small, but highly volatile, ghetto-like concentrations of Aboriginal people led to demands for greater political rights.
In fact, the social and political status of Aboriginal Australians was so low that they were omitted from the official national censuses until 1971, following the overwhelming passage of a 1967 referendum that granted the government power to legislate for them and to include them in the census count. At the 2001 census, 366,429 Australian residents were counted as Aboriginal people, 26,046 as Torres Strait Islander people, and 17,528 as belonging to both groups. The largest concentrations of Indigenous Australians were in New South Wales (with 29.2% of the national total), Queensland (27.5%), Western Australia (14.3%), and the Northern Territory (12.4%).
More than 70% of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live in urban areas. Traditional ways of life are still maintained in small enclaves in the more remote locations, especially in the northern and central areas of the continent. Every region of the country is represented by its own Aboriginal land council, and most regions run cultural centres and festivals. A shared desire to reassert their claim to land rights has united the widely separated communities, and indigenous culture is now widely expressed in art, literature, and popular culture.
In terms of social and economic disadvantage—unemployment, family income levels, welfare dependence, infant mortality rates, and average life expectancy—the Aboriginal population still fares badly in comparison with the Australian population as a whole. Its recent renaissance has brought victories in many spheres, however, and the confirmation of Aboriginal ownership and control of extensive areas of northern and central Australia has introduced a new dimension into the economic, political, and social life of the nation.
Religion
Australia has no single established church, and its constitution guarantees freedom of worship. The population is predominantly Christian. The largest single denominations are the Roman Catholic Church (29% of the population) and the Anglican Church of Australia (22%). Another 29% belong to other Christian denominations, such as the Protestant church (14%), the Uniting Church (founded in 1977 with the merging of the Methodists, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists), the Baptist Union, the Lutheran Church of Australia, the Church of Christ, and the Greek Orthodox Church. Jewish, Buddhist, and Muslim worshipers make up a small portion of the population. The number of Buddhists and Muslims is increasing, reflecting the changing immigration patterns since the 1960s. A significant share of Australia’s population say they are nonreligious.
