The
Australian Bureau of Statistics does not collect data on
race, but asks each Australian resident to nominate up to two
ancestries each
census. These ancestry responses are classified into broad standardised ancestry groups. At the 2021 census, the number of ancestry responses within each standardised group as a proportion of the total population was as follows: 57.2%
European (including 46%
North-West European and 11.2%
Southern and
Eastern European), 33.8% (including 29.9% Australian)
Oceanian, 17.4%
Asian (including 6.5%
Southern and
Central Asian, 6.4%
North-East Asian, and 4.5%
South-East Asian), 3.2%
North African and Middle Eastern, 1.4%
Peoples of the Americas, and 1.3%
Sub-Saharan African. At the 2021 census, the most commonly nominated individual ancestries as a proportion of the total population were: 1% should be listed here to avoid making this list prohibitevly long. -->
European Australians European Australians are Australians of whose descent is wholly or partially European. Australians of European descent are the majority in Australia, with the number of ancestry responses categorised within the European groups as a proportion of the total population amounting to 57.2% (including 46%
North-West European and 11.2%
Southern and
Eastern European). The largest statistical grouping of European Australians are
Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians whose ancestors originate wholly or partially in the
British Isles. This includes
English Australians,
Irish Australians,
Scottish Australians and
Welsh Australians. Anglo-Celtic Australians have been highly influential in shaping the nation's character. By the mid-1840s, the numbers of freeborn settlers had overtaken the convict population. Although some observers stress Australia's
convict history, the vast majority of early settlers came of their own free will. Far more Australians are descended from assisted immigrants than from convicts, the majority of Colonial Era settlers being British and Irish. About 20 percent of Australians are descendants of convicts. Most of the first Australian settlers came from London, the
Midlands and the
North of England, and Ireland. Settlers that arrived throughout the 19th century were from all parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland, a significant proportion of settlers came from the
Southwest and
Southeast of England, from Ireland and from Scotland. In 1888, 60 percent of the Australian population had been born in Australia, and almost all had British ancestral origins. Out of the remaining 40 percent, 34 percent had been born in the
British Isles, and 6 percent were of European origin, mainly from Germany and
Scandinavia. The census of 1901 showed that 98 percent of Australians had Anglo-Celtic ancestral origins. In 1939 and 1945, still 98 percent of Australians had Anglo-Celtic ancestral origins. Until 1947, the vast majority of the population were of British origin. Germans formed the largest non-British Isles ancestry for most of the 19th century. Between 1901 and 1940, 140,000 non-British European immigrants arrived in Australia (about 16 percent of the total intake). Before World War II, 13.6 percent were born overseas, and 80 percent of those were British. Following the
Second World War, large numbers of continental Europeans immigrated to Australia, with
Italian Australians and
Greek Australians being among the largest immigrant groups during the post-war era. During the 1950s, Australia was the destination of 30 per cent of
Dutch emigrants and the Netherlands-born became numerically the second largest non-British group in Australia. In 1971, 70 percent of the foreign born were of European origin.
Italian Australians are Australians of Italian ancestry, and comprise the largest non Anglo-Celtic European
ethnic group in Australia, with the 2021 census finding 4.4% of the population claiming ancestry from Italy be they migrants to Australia or their descendants born in Australia of Italian heritage. Although a few individuals had emigrated earlier, the first large group of Germans arrived in
South Australia 1838, not long after the
British colonisation of South Australia.
Asian Australians Asian Australians are Australians with ancestry wholly or partially from the continent of Asia. At the 2021 census, the number of ancestry responses categorised within the Asian groups as a proportion of the total population amounted to 17.4% (including 6.5%
Southern and
Central Asian, 6.4%
North-East Asian, and 4.5%
South-East Asian).
Indian Australians are Australians of
Indian ancestry, and are the second-largest Asian Australian ancestry, comprising 3.1% of the total population.
Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are descendants of the original inhabitants of the
Australian continent. Their ancestors are believed to have migrated from Africa to Asia around 70,000 years ago and arrived in Australia around 50,000 years ago. The
Torres Strait Islanders are a distinct people of
Melanesian ancestry, indigenous to the
Torres Strait Islands, which are at the northernmost tip of Queensland near
Papua New Guinea, and some nearby settlements on the mainland. The term "Aboriginal" is traditionally applied to only the
indigenous inhabitants of mainland Australia and
Tasmania, along with some of the adjacent islands.
Indigenous Australians is an inclusive term used when referring to both Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders (the "first peoples"). Dispersing across the Australian continent over time, the population expanded and differentiated into hundreds of distinct groups, each with its own language and culture. More than 400
distinct Australian Aboriginal peoples have been identified across the continent, distinguished by unique names designating their
ancestral languages, dialects, or distinctive speech patterns. In 1770, fearing he had been pre-empted by the French,
James Cook changed a hilltop signal-drill on
Possession Island in
Torres Strait, into a possession ceremony, fabricating Britain's claim of Australia's east coast. Eighteen years later, the east coast was occupied by Britain and later the west coast was also settled by Britain. At that time, the indigenous population was estimated to have been between 315,000 and 750,000. At the 2021 census, 3.2% of the Australian population identified as being
Indigenous —
Aboriginal Australians and
Torres Strait Islanders. Indigenous Australians experience higher than average rates of imprisonment and unemployment, lower levels of education, and life expectancies for males and females that are, respectively, 11 and 17 years lower than those of non-indigenous Australians. Some remote Indigenous communities have been described as having "
failed state"-like conditions.
African Australians ==Country of birth==