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Cairns Regional CouncilCommunity profile

The three largest ancestries in White Rock in 2021 were Australian, English and Australian Aboriginal.

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 White Rock 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 White Rock'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
White Rock - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
Ancestry totalsNumber%Cairns %Number%Cairns %2016 to 2021
Not stated5318.06.75849.97.3-53
Total responses6,620----5,896----+724
Total people4,917----4,719----+198
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
White Rock - Total persons (Usual residence)20212016Change
AncestryNumber%Cairns %Number%Cairns %2016 to 2021
Australian1,51230.830.01,74737.034.7-235
English1,46529.834.41,54532.735.1-80
Australian Aboriginal66913.67.11142.41.2+555
Torres Strait Islander4358.84.3921.91.0+343
Scottish4048.29.34188.99.4-14
Irish3978.110.54669.911.6-69
German2465.05.22475.25.4-1
Italian2324.75.01833.94.8+49
Filipino1242.51.9791.71.6+45
Papua New Guinean1132.31.7911.91.6+22
Show all (44 entries)

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

Dominant groups

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

  • Australian (1,512 people or 30.8%)
  • English (1,465 people or 29.8%)
  • Australian Aboriginal (669 people or 13.6%)
  • Torres Strait Islander (435 people or 8.8%)
  • Scottish (404 people or 8.2%)

In combination these five ancestries account for 4,485 responses in total, or 91.21% of all responses.

The major differences between the ancestries of the population in White Rock and Cairns were:

  • A larger percentage of people with Australian Aboriginal ancestry (13.6% compared to 7.1%)
  • A larger percentage of people with Torres Strait Islander ancestry (8.8% compared to 4.3%)
  • A smaller percentage of people with English ancestry (29.8% compared to 34.4%)
  • A smaller percentage of people with Irish ancestry (8.1% compared to 10.5%)

Emerging groups

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

  • Australian Aboriginal (+555 persons)
  • Torres Strait Islander (+343 persons)
  • Australian (-235 persons)
  • English (-80 persons)

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