The Sweden-born Community
Historical Background
The first Swede to visit Australia was the botanist Daniel Solander, who arrived in 1770 with James Cook’s first voyage.
In the 19th century, ships from Sweden regularly sailed to Australia with cargo and small numbers of immigrants. However, there were still only a few dozen Swedes in Australia until 1850.
The Victorian gold rush in 1851 attracted larger numbers of Swedes who not only worked on the gold fields in Ballarat, Bendigo and McIvor (now Heathcote), but went on to farming or business.
By 1901, there were an estimated 6000 Swedes in Australia, many of whom were engaged in successful commerce. The start of a regular Swedish shipping line from 1907 further developed trade between Australia and Sweden and led to the establishment of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Sydney in 1911. Strong business and trade links between Australia and Sweden continue to this day.
Numbers of Swedes declined by the mid-20th century, to around 2200 in 1954. The community was boosted by migration through assisted passage from the 1950s, almost doubling in size by 1981. Numbers of the Sweden-born, unlike other Scandinavia-born, have continued to grow.
There were 6900 Sweden-born people in Australia at the 2001 Census, making up 0.2 per cent of the overseas-born population.
Today
Geographic Distribution
The latest Census in 2006 recorded 7500 Sweden-born people in Australia, an increase of 8.6 per cent from the 2001 Census. The 2006 distribution by state and territory showed New South Wales had the largest number with 2560 followed by Queensland (1830), Victoria (1550) and Western Australia (790).
Age and Sex
The median age of the Sweden-born in 2006 was 40.3 years compared with 46.8 years for all overseas-born and 37.1 years for the total Australian population. The age distribution showed 7.6 per cent were aged 0-14 years, 11.5 per cent were 15-24 years, 41.7 per cent were 25-44 years, 28.2 per cent were 45-64 years and 10.9 per cent were 65 and over.
Of the Sweden-born in Australia, there were 3540 males (47.2 per cent) and 3960 females (52.8 per cent). The sex ratio was 89.3 males per 100 females.
Ancestry
In the 2006 Census, the top three ancestry responses* that Sweden-born people reported were, Swedish (6200), Australian (440) and Finnish (320).
In the 2006 Census, Australians reported more than 250 different Ancestries. From the total ancestry responses*, 0.1 per cent responded as having a Swedish ancestry.
*At the 2006 Census up to two responses per person were allowed for the Ancestry question; therefore providing the total responses and not persons count.
Language
The main languages spoken at home by Sweden-born people in Australia were Swedish (49.9 per cent), English (43.6 per cent) and Not Stated (0.8 per cent).
Of the 4190 Sweden-born who spoke a language other than English at home, 97.5 per cent spoke English very well or well and 1.6 per cent spoke English not well or not at all.
Religion
At the 2006 Census the major religious affiliations amongst Sweden-born were No Religion (2460 persons), Lutheran (2360 persons) and Not Stated (640 persons).
Of the Sweden-born, 32.8 per cent stated 'No Religion', this was higher than that of the total Australian population (18.7 per cent). 8.5 per cent of the Sweden-born did not state a religion.
Arrival
Compared to 67.9 per cent of the total overseas-born population, 59.5 per cent of the Sweden-born people in Australia arrived in Australia prior to 1996.
Among the total Sweden-born in Australia at the 2006 Census, 9.8 per cent arrived between 1996 and 2000 and 26.4 per cent arrived during 2001 and 2006.
Citizenship
At the 2006 Census, the estimated rate of Australian Citizenship for the Sweden-born in Australia was 57.3 per cent. The estimated rate for all overseas-born was 75.6 per cent. This rate includes adjustments for people not meeting the residential requirement for citizenship, temporary entrants to Australia and underenumeration at the Census.
Median Income
At the time of the 2006 Census, the median individual weekly income for the Sweden-born in Australia aged 15 years and over was $543, compared with $431 for all overseas-born and $488 for all Australia-born. The total Australian population had a median individual weekly income of $466.
Qualifications
At the 2006 Census, 64.8 per cent of the Sweden-born aged 15 years and over had some form of higher non school qualifications compared to 52.5 per cent of the Australian population. Among the Sweden-born, 39.2 per cent had Diploma level or higher* qualifications and 16.2 per cent had Certificate level qualifications. From the Sweden-born, 2380 had no higher non school qualification, of which 29.4 per cent were still attending an educational institution.
* Diploma level or higher qualification includes Degree level or higher, Advanced Diploma and Diploma level.
Employment
Among Sweden-born people aged 15 years and over, the participation rate in the labour force was 67.8 per cent and the unemployment rate was 5.1 per cent. The corresponding rates in the total Australian population were 64.6 and 5.2 per cent respectively.
Of the 4400 Sweden-born who were employed, 39.7 per cent were employed in a Skill Level 1 occupation, 10.9 per cent in Skill Level 2 and 12.2 per cent in Skill Level 3. The corresponding rates in the total Australian population were 28.7, 10.7 and 15.1 per cent respectively.
Jointly produced by Multicultural Affairs Branch and the Program Statistics and Monitoring Section of the department. All data used in this summary is sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population and Housing. Sources for the Historical Background available at Community Information Summaries: Bibliography
© Commonwealth of Australia.