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The three largest ancestries in New South Wales 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 New South Wales 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 New South Wales'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
New South Wales - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
Ancestry totalsNumber%Victoria %Number%Victoria %2016 to 2021
Not stated511,3084.94.5510,5415.45.3+767
Total responses10,440,884----9,384,292----+1,056,592
Total people8,072,164----7,480,227----+591,937
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
New South Wales - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
AncestryNumber%Victoria %Number%Victoria %2016 to 2021
English2,404,99029.829.22,302,48130.829.9+102,509
Australian2,307,54928.627.22,261,06230.227.9+46,487
Irish735,3409.19.4741,6719.910.1-6,331
Scottish620,3637.78.2587,0527.88.3+33,311
Chinese581,7887.26.6514,7396.96.3+67,049
Italian301,8293.75.9272,1243.66.0+29,705
Indian261,1033.24.3211,9272.83.5+49,176
Australian Aboriginal259,5923.21.030,8490.40.1+228,743
German242,5463.03.3236,1463.23.4+6,400
Lebanese178,2912.20.8166,5912.20.8+11,700
Show all (130 entries)

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

Dominant groups

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

  • English (2,404,990 people or 29.8%)
  • Australian (2,307,549 people or 28.6%)
  • Irish (735,340 people or 9.1%)
  • Scottish (620,363 people or 7.7%)
  • Chinese (581,788 people or 7.2%)

In combination these five ancestries account for 6,650,030 responses in total, or 82.38% of all responses.

The major differences between the ancestries of the population in New South Wales and Victoria were:

  • A larger percentage of people with Australian Aboriginal ancestry (3.2% compared to 1.0%)
  • A larger percentage of people with Lebanese ancestry (2.2% compared to 0.8%)
  • A larger percentage of people with Australian ancestry (28.6% compared to 27.2%)
  • A smaller percentage of people with Italian ancestry (3.7% compared to 5.9%)

Emerging groups

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

  • Australian Aboriginal (+228,743 persons)
  • English (+102,509 persons)
  • Chinese (+67,049 persons)
  • Indian (+49,176 persons)

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