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The three largest ancestries in Big Rivers in 2021 were Australian Aboriginal, Australian and English.

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 Big Rivers 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 Big Rivers'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
Big Rivers - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
Ancestry totalsNumber%RDA Northern Territory %Number%RDA Northern Territory %2016 to 2021
Not stated2,41311.78.23,09315.911.2-680
Total responses20,683----19,406----+1,277
Total people18,955----19,042-----87
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
Big Rivers - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
AncestryNumber%RDA Northern Territory %Number%RDA Northern Territory %2016 to 2021
Australian Aboriginal8,86146.724.56,93236.416.4+1,929
Australian3,69619.524.14,85125.528.6-1,155
English3,04216.023.13,15916.624.0-117
Irish9955.27.39605.08.1+35
Scottish8604.56.39164.86.5-56
German5332.83.65302.83.8+3
Filipino3361.83.52631.43.0+73
Italian2071.11.91921.01.8+15
Nepalese1610.81.4420.20.5+119
Torres Strait Islander1610.81.0450.20.2+116
Show all (57 entries)

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

Dominant groups

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

  • Australian Aboriginal (8,861 people or 46.7%)
  • Australian (3,696 people or 19.5%)
  • English (3,042 people or 16.0%)
  • Irish (995 people or 5.2%)
  • Scottish (860 people or 4.5%)

In combination these five ancestries account for 17,454 responses in total, or 92.08% of all responses.

The major differences between the ancestries of the population in Big Rivers and the RDA Northern Territory were:

  • A larger percentage of people with Australian Aboriginal ancestry (46.7% compared to 24.5%)
  • A smaller percentage of people with English ancestry (16.0% compared to 23.1%)
  • A smaller percentage of people with Australian ancestry (19.5% compared to 24.1%)
  • A smaller percentage of people with Chinese ancestry (0.8% compared to 3.0%)

Emerging groups

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

  • Australian Aboriginal (+1,929 persons)
  • Australian (-1,155 persons)
  • Nepalese (+119 persons)
  • English (-117 persons)

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