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City of WhittleseaCommunity profile

City of Whittlesea

Ancestry

The three largest ancestries in the City of Whittlesea in 2021 were Australian, English 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 Whittlesea 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 Whittlesea'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 Whittlesea - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
Ancestry totalsNumber%Greater Melbourne %Number%Greater Melbourne %2016 to 2021
Not stated12,4524.44.210,7414.55.0+1,711
Total responses281,903----237,135----+44,768
Total people229,398----197,489----+31,909
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 Whittlesea - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
AncestryNumber%Greater Melbourne %Number%Greater Melbourne %2016 to 2021
Australian45,20719.723.439,44520.024.0+5,762
English40,31917.625.636,87518.726.6+3,444
Italian27,87912.26.626,06313.26.7+1,816
Indian18,0257.95.313,1866.74.4+4,839
Macedonian13,9796.10.913,0026.60.9+977
Greek12,2115.33.511,7425.93.6+469
Irish11,1834.98.311,1055.69.1+78
Chinese9,9154.38.38,6704.47.9+1,245
Scottish9,1964.07.18,5734.37.3+623
Lebanese5,1512.21.04,7662.41.0+385
Show all (130 entries)

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

Dominant groups

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

  • Australian (45,207 people or 19.7%)
  • English (40,319 people or 17.6%)
  • Italian (27,879 people or 12.2%)
  • Indian (18,025 people or 7.9%)
  • Macedonian (13,979 people or 6.1%)

In combination these five ancestries account for 145,409 responses in total, or 63.39% of all responses.

The major differences between the ancestries of the population in the City of Whittlesea and Greater Melbourne were:

  • A larger percentage of people with Italian ancestry (12.2% compared to 6.6%)
  • A larger percentage of people with Macedonian ancestry (6.1% compared to 0.9%)
  • A smaller percentage of people with English ancestry (17.6% compared to 25.6%)
  • A smaller percentage of people with Chinese ancestry (4.3% compared to 8.3%)

Emerging groups

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

  • Australian (+5,762 persons)
  • Indian (+4,839 persons)
  • English (+3,444 persons)
  • Punjabi (+2,972 persons)

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