Happy ANZAC day! Australia’s population milestones

Happy ANZAC day! ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. And today, on 25 April, we honour those who served and died in wars, conflicts, military and peacekeeping operations. The current ANZACs are fighting for 23 million Australians. That’s right: Australia hit another population milestone two days ago on 23 April 2013 with 23 million people. In this blog, we’ll look at how many Australians were the ANZACs protecting at their time.

The first European fleet arrived in New South Wales on 26 January 1788. It is estimated that approximately 859 people lived on Australia’s soil that year. Fast forward to 1 January 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia was formed when the six colonies then merged into one federation. At that time, it was estimated that Australia had about 3.8 million people. Thirteen years later, World War I began in 1914. While Australia was not directly involved in the war, it sent troops in 1915 to help the British allies in Gallipoli peninsular. Word got around that the troops landed there on 25 April 1915 and voilà, that day became ANZAC day as it marked the anniversary of first major military operation the Australian and New Zealand troops fought. In that year, there were about 4.9 million people in Australia. Three years later, in 1918, Australia hit a significant population milestone with 5 million citizens.

Soon after, in 1939, World War II began and Australia soldiers were once again deployed to help the allies and defend the country, particularly to stop the Japanese from entering Australia. It is estimated that Australia had about 7 million people. After the war, our population began booming. In 1959, we hit the 10 million mark and in 1981, Australia’s population grew to 15 million. Just one decade ago, we reach a population of 20 million and in 2013, we hit 23 million. For more detailed data, visit the Australian Bureau of Statistics website and you can find all this information in the Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2008.

While Australia’s population is only 0.3% of the world’s population (approx. 7 billion), it is definitely growing and will continue to prosper and remain save thanks to our ANZACs.

In other matters, I went to the Dawn Service at the Shrine of Remembrance (Melbourne) this morning. Although it was cloudy, it was amazing standing amongst a dedicated crowd of Australians who gathered there at 6am. Below are some photos before we say goodbye. Happy ANZAC day!

Access the Australian Community Profile now. You will find Census results (including SEIFA data) for each Capital City, State, Southeast Queensland and Australia on topics including population, age, country of birth, languages spoken, occupations, industries, employment, disability, income, qualifications, transport and much more…