Australia’s changing cultural diversity – top 10 places of origin for people born overseas
Birthplace has probably been the most discussed topic in the office since the Census data was released. It’s one of the topics where we see the most change, and its a great reflection of Australia’s past, present and future.
More people born overseas
2016 Census data shows that 26.4% of people living in Australia were born overseas. This is an increase from 24.6% in 2011, an additional 870,263 people.
The top 10 birthplaces of people born overseas have changed a bit since 2011 – Germany has dropped out of the list, replaced by Sri Lanka, and Italy has fallen behind Philippines and Vietnam. The United Kingdom has decreased but still maintains its number one position.
Top 10 birthplaces of people born overseas, 2016 |
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Birthplace | Percentage of population | |
1. | United Kingdom | 4.6% |
2. | New Zealand | 2.2% |
3. | China | 2.2% |
4. | India | 1.9% |
5. | Philippines | 1.0% |
6. | Vietnam | 0.9% |
7. | Italy | 0.7% |
8. | South Africa | 0.7% |
9. | Malaysia | 0.6% |
10. | Sri Lanka | 0.5% |
Top 10 birthplaces for people born overseas, 2011 and 2016
Emerging birthplace communities
So which birthplace communities are emerging in Australia? There are two ways to look at this – places with the biggest number increase and percentage increase. By number, the top 10 increases were in:
Top 10 emerging overseas birthplaces, 2016 |
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Birthplace | Population change | |
1. | China | +190,586 |
2. | India | +160,027 |
3. | Philippines | +61,153 |
4. | New Zealand | +35,068 |
5. | Vietnam | +34,316 |
6. | Pakistan | +31,692 |
7. | Nepal | +30,119 |
8. | South Korea | +24,238 |
9. | Iran | +23,658 |
10. | Sri Lanka | +23,437 |
At the top of the leaderboard, China and India are the largest emerging birthplace communities. The majority of these ’emerging’ communities are already quite large and prominent within Australia. Looking at percentage increase helps to identify smaller communities that are increasing in prominence. This reveals an interesting mix of places:
Top 10 emerging overseas birthplaces, 2016 |
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Birthplace |
Percentage change |
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1. | Mongolia | +240.5% |
2. | Bhutan | +142.4% |
3. | Nepal | +122.3% |
4. | South Sudan | +120.9% |
5. | Pakistan | +104.9% |
6. | Brazil | +90.4% |
7. | Nigeria | +87.8% |
8. | Qatar | 84.3% |
9. | Syria | +82.6% |
10. | Iran | +68.7% |
Interestingly, many of these birthplaces are represented on the list of countries from which Australia has accepted refugees over the past few years. Not a lot is known about these communities due to their newness and rapid change. Stay tuned as we get further data that will assist us in profiling these specific communities.
Have you noticed an emerging birthplace community in the data for your local area? If you have questions about the cultural diversity of your local area, get in touch with our team of demographers who can help you understand your area.
.id is a team of population experts who combine online tools and consulting services to help local governments and organisations decide where and when to locate their facilities and services, to meet the needs of changing populations.
Great source of new information for outcoming presentacions, thank you
Great source of new information for outcoming presentacions, thank you
Great article. This might be a dumb question but I thought census data on country of birth released so far only included the top 50 countries (as of the 2011 census) which didn’t include Syria. So where did you get the data on Syria?
Thanks Alison. .id had a special order with the ABS to get access to the full list of birthplace countries, as part of our work to update our profile.id sites. Further data at an LGA level will be available on our profile.id sites over the coming weeks.
This may not be the place to ask it, but how is Australia’s emigration measured? Do we know how many Australians and (former) residents have placed themselves elsewhere, and where they landed?
The Overseas Arrivals and Departures publication has quite a bit of info about this.
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3401.0
Not sure of the level of detail ie. Where they are going, but this is the first place I’d look.
Andrew, c/-
Glenn Capuano
Thanks Georgia! I want to update a report on CALD communities in WA and we have a gap for Kenya, Korea (South), Macedonia, Sudan, Vietnam and any significant recent influxes (which may include Syria for example). Frustrating to have to wait until October! But .id covers all but three of our top 18 LGAs in metropolitan Perth (as of 2011), so that will help in the meantime. Thanks again.