Demographics of Australia
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Australia-demography.png
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 yer and officially reached 20 million people on 4 December 2003.[1] Australia is 52nd most populous country in the world and its population is characterised as largely homogenous, urban and predominately Christian.
Current (2005-2006) Demographic data
Image:Australia population pyramid 2005.png Much of the data that follows has been derived from the CIA World Factbook and the Australian Bureau of Statistics
Population
- 20,387,900 (September 2005 - 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.)
Median age
- Total: 36.9 years
- Male: 36 years
- Female: 37.7 years (2006 est.)
Population growth rate
Image:AustPopnGrowthRat1800to2002.png
- 1.2% (September 2005 - ABS)
In April 2006, the population growth rate is based on estimates of:
- one birth every 2 minutes and 0 seconds,
- one death every 3 minutes and 56 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 12 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.
Since 1901, the crude death rate has fallen from about 12.2 deaths per 1,000 population to 6.7 in 2000. [2]
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
- Total population: 80.5 years
- Male: 77.64 years
- Female: 83.52 years (2006 est.)
Total fertility rate
- 1.76 children born/woman (2006 est.)
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.
- 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 and Montenegro, Croatia and Macedonia.
- 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 Islander (0.10%).
Ethnic groups
- Caucasian 92%, Asian 7%, Aboriginal and other 1%
Religions and beliefs
- Roman Catholic 26.6%, Anglican 20.7%, other Christian 20.7%, non-Christian 4.8%, 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.
Languages
- Official: English
- Most common languages other than English: Chinese languages, Italian, Greek
- Indigenous: Australian Aboriginal languages, Australian Deaf Sign Language
Literacy
- Definition: age 15 and over can read and write
- Total population: 99%
- Male: 99%
- Female: 99% (2003 est.)
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 1 person per square mile along the coasts to 1 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.
Immigration
Image:Australian population data as a percentage 1881-2000.png
Main article: Australian immigration
Immigration has been a major factor in Australia's development since the beginning of European settlement in 1788. For generations, most settlers came from Britain and Ireland, and the people of Australia are still predominantly of British or Irish origin, with a culture and outlook similar to that of the United Kingdom and the United States.
Between 1839 and 1900 over 18,000 Germans came to Australia, especially the south; by 1890 they were the largest non-British section of the population. Some were persecuted Lutherans, others were economic or political refugees, for example the Forty-Eighters who fled Germany after the revolutions in 1848.
Since the end of World War II, the population has more than doubled; non-European immigration, mostly from the Middle East and Asia, has increased significantly since 1945 through an extensive, planned immigration program. From 1945 through 1996, nearly 5.5 million immigrants settled in Australia, and about 80% have remained; nearly one of every four Australians is foreign-born. Britain and Ireland have been the largest sources of post-war immigrants, followed by Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, New Zealand, and the former Yugoslavia. [3]
The 1970s saw progressive reductions in the size of the annual immigration program due to economic and employment conditions; in 1969-70, 185,000 persons were permitted to settle, but by 1975-76 the number had dropped to 52,700. Immigration has slowly risen since. In 1995-96, Australia accepted more than 99,000 regular immigrants. In 1999-2000, Australia accepted 82,000 new immigrants. In addition, since 1990 about 7,500 New Zealanders have settled in Australia each year.
- 1999-2000: 82,000
- 2000-2001: 107,336
- 2001-2002: 88,900
- 2002-2003: 93,914
- 2003-2004: 111,590
Settler Arrivals 1993-94 to 2003-04 (293KB, PDF)
- 2004-2005: 120,000
- 2005-2006: 130,000 - 140,000 (projected)
Current Australia population trends
Image:Australian population.PNG
Australia's refugee admissions of about 12,000 per year are in addition to the normal immigration program. In recent years, the government has given priority to refugees from the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East, and Africa. In recent years, refugees from Indochina and the former Yugoslavia have comprised the largest single element in Australia's refugee program.
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. This phenomenon is relatively new in Australia's history, estimated as having occurred over the last 40 years. Awareness of this demographic (almost 5% of the Australian population) is growing and supported by government initiatives.
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: less than 15% of the population live in rural areas.
Religion and belief
Template:Main 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 : Australia, Education in Australia, List of cities in Australia, Culture of Australia, Immigration to Australia
External links
- Current estimated resident population of Australia Australian Bureau of Statisticses:Demografía de Australia