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City of Merri-bekCommunity profile

The three largest ancestries in the City of Merri-bek in 2021 were English, Australian and Italian.

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 the City of Merri-bek 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 the City of Merri-bek'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
City of Merri-bek - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
Ancestry totalsNumber%Greater Melbourne %Number%Greater Melbourne %2016 to 2021
Not stated8,8123.94.210,3275.15.0-1,515
Total responses226,714----203,442----+23,272
Total people171,351----162,561----+8,790
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
City of Merri-bek - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
AncestryNumber%Greater Melbourne %Number%Greater Melbourne %2016 to 2021
English40,13423.425.635,73322.026.6+4,401
Australian36,69921.423.432,51620.024.0+4,183
Italian25,65315.06.625,37715.66.7+276
Irish17,95910.58.316,81410.39.1+1,145
Scottish13,0457.67.111,0906.87.3+1,955
Greek10,0585.93.59,8836.13.6+175
Lebanese6,5073.81.06,9744.31.0-467
Chinese6,4683.88.36,2473.87.9+221
Indian5,5183.25.35,5653.44.4-47
German5,1393.02.94,3502.73.0+789
Show all (129 entries)

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

Dominant groups

Analysis of the ancestry responses of the population in City of Merri-bek in 2021 shows that the top five ancestries nominated were:

  • English (40,134 people or 23.4%)
  • Australian (36,699 people or 21.4%)
  • Italian (25,653 people or 15.0%)
  • Irish (17,959 people or 10.5%)
  • Scottish (13,045 people or 7.6%)

In combination these five ancestries account for 133,490 responses in total, or 77.90% of all responses.

The major differences between the ancestries of the population in the City of Merri-bek and Greater Melbourne were:

  • A larger percentage of people with Italian ancestry (15.0% compared to 6.6%)
  • A larger percentage of people with Lebanese ancestry (3.8% compared to 1.0%)
  • A larger percentage of people with Greek ancestry (5.9% compared to 3.5%)
  • A smaller percentage of people with Chinese ancestry (3.8% compared to 8.3%)

Emerging groups

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

  • English (+4,401 persons)
  • Australian (+4,183 persons)
  • Scottish (+1,955 persons)
  • Nepalese (+1,285 persons)

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