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City of BoroondaraCommunity profile

The three largest ancestries in Kew in 2021 were English, Australian and Chinese.

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 Kew 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 Kew'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
Kew - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
Ancestry totalsNumber%Hawthorn %Number%Hawthorn %2016 to 2021
Not stated9682.93.11,5214.85.3-553
Total responses33,239----31,923----+1,316
Total people24,496----24,601-----105
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
Kew - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
AncestryNumber%Hawthorn %Number%Hawthorn %2016 to 2021
English7,12729.134.37,26029.531.0-133
Australian5,83723.826.75,98224.324.3-145
Chinese3,97416.29.23,39513.810.0+579
Irish3,23713.214.33,37713.713.8-140
Scottish2,4149.912.52,3039.411.1+111
Italian1,8147.45.31,6336.64.6+181
Greek1,1644.83.11,1284.62.5+36
German7953.23.98593.53.4-64
Indian7032.93.96842.85.4+19
Vietnamese4812.01.74781.91.9+3
Show all (95 entries)

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

Dominant groups

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

  • English (7,127 people or 29.1%)
  • Australian (5,837 people or 23.8%)
  • Chinese (3,974 people or 16.2%)
  • Irish (3,237 people or 13.2%)
  • Scottish (2,414 people or 9.9%)

In combination these five ancestries account for 22,589 responses in total, or 92.22% of all responses.

The major differences between the ancestries of the population in Kew and Hawthorn were:

  • A larger percentage of people with Chinese ancestry (16.2% compared to 9.2%)
  • A smaller percentage of people with English ancestry (29.1% compared to 34.3%)
  • A smaller percentage of people with Australian ancestry (23.8% compared to 26.7%)
  • A smaller percentage of people with Scottish ancestry (9.9% compared to 12.5%)

Emerging groups

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

  • Chinese (+579 persons)
  • Italian (+181 persons)
  • Australian (-145 persons)
  • Irish (-140 persons)

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