Australian Multiculturalism for a New Century: Towards Inclusiveness
1 Evolution of multicultural policy
1.1 The Nation’s changing face
Australia is a culturally diverse society.
Our indigenous people have always had a rich variety of cultures, languages and customs. Even the members of the First Fleet came from a number of ethnic backgrounds.
Our diversity has grown continually ever since, and especially during the last fifty years, as a result of large-scale migration from non-English-speaking countries and the eventual adoption of a non-discriminatory immigration policy.
The population has grown through immigration which has been actively encouraged by the governments of the day, particularly since 1945.
Together with population growth, rapid changes have also occurred in the demographic, social and economic profiles of the population.
As many of these characteristics have a bearing on multicultural policy and community attitudes to our cultural diversity, the Council asked the Australian Bureau of Statistics to prepare a report analysing Australia’s population. This chapter is largely based on this report.
Population
Other than the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Australia was mostly settled by migrants from Great Britain and Ireland, at least until World War II.
The population reached 7.6 million in 1947 and doubled by 1979. At 30 June 1997, the resident population of Australia was estimated to be 18.5 million people.
Population projections prepared by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, using various assumptions of future fertility, mortality and overseas migration levels, estimate that the population will increase to between 22.1 and 26.4 million by 2051.
Figures 1 and 2 - Birth, death and population growth rates
Overseas migration has played a key role in shaping Australia as one of the world’s most culturally diverse nations.
In the 1996 census, people named nearly 200 countries of birth.
Migration since World War II has resulted in the overseas-born population increasing from 744,000 (9.8% of the population) in 1947 to 4.3 million in 1996, representing 23.3% of the total resident population of Australia.
All in all, around 42% of Australia’s population was born overseas or has at least one parent born overseas.
Table 1 - Main countries of birth of overseas-born residents
Australian citizenship
Prior to 1949 the legal status of people living in Australia, who were not 'aliens’, was that of British subject.
With the passing of the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948, which came into effect on 26 January 1949, most became Australian Citizens automatically.
Since that time over 3.1 million overseas-born people have applied for and been granted Australian ctizenship.
At the 1996 census, the overall Australian Citizenship rate (the percentage of overseas-born residents in Australia eligible for Australian citizenship who are Australian citizens) was 73.2%, up from 65.8% at the 1991 census.
People who had lived in Australia longer were more likely to have become Australian citizens.
However, the Australian citizenship rate varied considerably between people from different countries.
At the 1996 census, birthplaces with the highest rates were Laos (97.6%), Lebanon (97.4%), Greece (97.3%), Hungary (96.6%) and Latvia (96.5%). Those birthplaces with the lowest rates were Japan (25.3%), New Zealand (35.1%), Malaysia (56.9%) and the USA (57.3%).
The rate for those born in the United Kingdom increased from 52.7% in 1991 to 62.2% in 1996, although at 397,374 they represented the highest number (41%) of eligible residents who had not acquired Australian citizenship.
Religious affiliation
The religious profile of the population has changed with the arrival of migrants into Australia.
Up to the end of World War II, European settlers brought their traditional religions with the result that in 1947 39% of the population were Anglican, 21% Catholic, and 28% reported affiliation to other Christian denominations and beliefs.
Since then, the proportion declaring a Christian faith has declined from 88% to 71% in 1996.
Immigration to Australia, firstly from Europe and later from the Middle East and South-East Asia, has helped to reshape this profile with relatively small but growing numbers of people adhering to faiths such as Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.
However, a more significant trend has been the rise in the proportion of the population who do not have evident religious affiliations.
In 1996, almost one quarter of the population either reported having no religion (17%) or preferred not to answer the census question (9%). Together, these groups represented only 13% of the population in 1971.
Table 2 - Country of birth of settler arrivals
Language spoken at homeEnglish is the national language, but a substantial proportion of the population aged five years and over speak languages other than English at home.
In 1996, nearly 2.5 million people (16% of the total population aged five and over) spoke other languages at home.
Of these, 74% were overseas-born and 26% Australian-born (most likely Australian-born children of migrants).
The main languages spoken by overseas-born people were Chinese (15.5%), Italian (11.6%), Greek (7.4%), Vietnamese (6.3%) and Arabic/Lebanese (5.3%).
Among the Australian-born children of migrants, the main languages spoken were Italian (19.3%), Greek (15.7%), Arabic/Lebanese (7.9%), Aboriginal languages (5.7%) and Chinese (4.5%).
Age and gender structure
As in many other countries, Australia’s population has been ageing.
The median age of the population increased from 30.7 years in 1947 to 34.3 years in 1997.
Over this period the proportion of the population aged 65 and over increased from 8.0% to 12.1%.
Settlers from overseas have slowed the ageing of the population since their age profile, at their time of arrival, has generally been younger than that of the Australian population.
However, the age profiles of people from particular countries vary substantially, reflecting their different periods of arrival in Australia.
In 1996, the overseas-born population was older (median age of 44 years) than the Australian-born population (median age of 30 years).
Prior to 1979, Australia’s population had more males than females, but this difference reversed in 1979.
In 1996, there were 99 males to 100 females, but among older persons aged 65 years and over there were 77 men per 100 women.
The overseas-born population had an excess of males (105 males to 100 females) in 1986, but in 1996 this excess had fallen to 102.
Figures 3 and 4 - Age-sex distribution
Population distribution
Australia’s population is unevenly distributed across its six States and two Territories.
In 1996, just over three-quarters of the population lived in the eastern seaboard States (New South Wales 34%, Victoria 25% and Queensland 18%).
Settlers tend to settle in the most populous States and the largest cities, mainly due to the availability of employment opportunities, infrastructure support (friends and other family members already settled in the area), and other reasons such as climate and health.
The postwar settlement pattern of migrants, together with internal migration and slight variations in rates of natural increase across the States/Territories, have resulted in a slight decline in the percentage of the population of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, and a corresponding increase in the share of the population of Queensland, Western Australia and, to some extent, that of the Australian Capital Territory.
The interstate movements of people have had a major influence on the distribution of the population across the States and Territories.
During 1991-96, nearly 1.6 million people aged five years and over (8.9% of total population) changed their State or Territory of usual residence.
This transfer provided a net gain of population to two States, Queensland (145,000 people) and Western Australia (17,300 people), and a net loss to all other States and Territories. In terms of the absolute numbers, however, the 1991 and 1996 census show that the population of each State and Territory rose. Since 1996 the population of Tasmania has declined slightly.
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