3412.0 - Migration, Australia, 2009-10 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 16/06/2011   
   Page tools: Print Print Page Print all pages in this productPrint All  

REGIONS OF BIRTH

The makeup of Australia's overseas-born population has been greatly affected by successive waves of migration to Australia since World War II. At first, most of these immigrants were born in countries in North-West Europe, including the United Kingdom and Germany. These people were followed by large numbers of migrants born in Southern and Eastern Europe, including Italy, Greece and Yugoslavia. In the 1970s, many migrants arrived in Australia from South-East Asia, including Vietnam, the Philippines and Cambodia.

The proportion of immigrants born in North-West Europe has, in recent years, been in decline, falling from 7.8% in 2000 to 7.1% in 2010 (see table 4.3). However, North-West Europe still holds the largest proportion of overseas-born in Australia's population. The share of Southern and Eastern Europe migrants is also in decline from 4.5% in 2000 to 3.7% in 2010. Over the past decade, migrants born in the remaining regions of the world increased within Australia's population, especially those from the Asian regions. For example, immigrants form North-East Asia increased their representation from 1.7% in 2000 to 3.0% in 2010. The Americas, while increasing their representation, have the smallest proportion of the Australian population, with 1.1%.

4.3 REGIONS OF BIRTH, Proportion of Australia's population - Selected years at 30 June
2000
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010(a)
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
Australia
77.0
75.8
75.4
74.9
74.2
73.6
73.2
Oceania and Antarctica (excl. Aust.)
2.5
2.7
2.8
2.8
2.9
3.0
3.1
North-West Europe
7.8
7.3
7.3
7.3
7.3
7.2
7.1
Southern and Eastern Europe
4.5
4.2
4.1
4.0
3.9
3.8
3.7
North Africa and the Middle East
1.2
1.4
1.4
1.4
1.5
1.5
1.5
South-East Asia
2.8
3.0
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
North-East Asia
1.7
2.1
2.3
2.4
2.6
2.8
3.0
Southern and Central Asia
1.0
1.4
1.5
1.8
2.1
2.4
2.5
Americas
0.9
1.0
1.0
1.1
1.1
1.1
1.1
Sub-Saharan Africa
0.8
1.0
1.1
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.3
(a) Estimates for 2009-10 are preliminary - see paragraph 9-10 of the Explanatory Notes.








Previous PageNext Page