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AustraliaCommunity profile

The three largest ancestries in Australia in 2021 were English, Australian and Irish.

Ancestry defines the cultural association and ethnic background of an individual going back three generations. Ancestry is a good measure of the total size of cultural groups in Australia regardless of where they were born or what language they speak.

Ancestry data, should be combined with data on Birthplace, Language Spoken at Home and Religion for a more complete picture of Australia's ethnic characteristics.

Please note that the "Australian Aboriginal" and "Torres Strait Islander" categories in this topic are not directly comparable from 2021 to previous years, due to a change in the wording of the question. In 2021, these options were marked boxes on the question rather than write-in options. The "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Origin" question is still considered a more reliable count for this group, and can be found on the Population summary page.

Please note: Due to changes in ABS rules around perturbation and additivity of data to protect the confidentiality of individuals, counts of ancestry groups and totals derived from them may differ slightly from those published by the ABS. For more information see notes on data confidentiality.

Q:

Derived from the Census question:

'What is the person's ancestry?'

Multi-response

Ancestry - Totals
Australia - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
Ancestry totalsNumber%Greater Darwin %Number%Greater Darwin %2016 to 2021
Not stated1,584,1594.77.61,632,6955.510.2-48,536
Total responses33,378,055----29,739,749----+3,638,306
Total people25,422,816----23,401,878----+2,020,938
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2016 and 2021. Compiled and presented by .id (informed decisions).
Please refer to specific data notes for more information
Ancestry - Ranked by size
Australia - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
AncestryNumber%Greater Darwin %Number%Greater Darwin %2016 to 2021
English8,385,92433.027.77,852,22133.628.7+533,703
Australian7,596,76129.928.97,298,23831.232.8+298,523
Irish2,410,8409.58.52,388,05810.29.7+22,782
Scottish2,176,7718.67.52,023,4608.67.7+153,311
Chinese1,391,2515.54.31,214,4385.24.0+176,813
Italian1,108,3644.42.31,000,0134.32.3+108,351
German1,026,1404.04.1982,2304.24.4+43,910
Indian783,9523.12.8619,1632.62.5+164,789
Australian Aboriginal741,3122.98.9144,1790.61.5+597,133
Greek424,7441.72.9397,4351.72.8+27,309
Show all (130 entries)

Excludes ancestries with fewer than 10 responses (multi-response).

Dominant groups

Analysis of the ancestry responses of the population in Australia in 2021 shows that the top five ancestries nominated were:

  • English (8,385,924 people or 33.0%)
  • Australian (7,596,761 people or 29.9%)
  • Irish (2,410,840 people or 9.5%)
  • Scottish (2,176,771 people or 8.6%)
  • Chinese (1,391,251 people or 5.5%)

In combination these five ancestries account for 21,961,547 responses in total, or 86.39% of all responses.

The major differences between the ancestries of the population in Australia and Greater Darwin were:

  • A larger percentage of people with English ancestry (33.0% compared to 27.7%)
  • A larger percentage of people with Italian ancestry (4.4% compared to 2.3%)
  • A smaller percentage of people with Australian Aboriginal ancestry (2.9% compared to 8.9%)
  • A smaller percentage of people with Filipino ancestry (1.6% compared to 4.9%)

Emerging groups

The largest changes in the reported ancestries of the population in this area between 2016 and 2021 were:

  • Australian Aboriginal (+597,133 persons)
  • English (+533,703 persons)
  • Australian (+298,523 persons)
  • Chinese (+176,813 persons)

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