The three largest ancestries in Inner West Council area in 2021 were English, Australian and Irish.
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 Inner West Council area 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 Inner West Council area'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
Dominant groups
Analysis of the ancestry responses of the population in Inner West Council area in 2021 shows that the top five ancestries nominated were:
- English (54,645 people or 29.9%)
- Australian (44,681 people or 24.4%)
- Irish (25,010 people or 13.7%)
- Scottish (17,619 people or 9.6%)
- Chinese (15,468 people or 8.5%)
In combination these five ancestries account for 157,423 responses in total, or 86.11% of all responses.
The major differences between the ancestries of the population in Inner West Council area and Burwood Council Area were:
- A larger percentage of people with English ancestry (29.9% compared to 10.7%)
- A larger percentage of people with Australian ancestry (24.4% compared to 9.6%)
- A larger percentage of people with Irish ancestry (13.7% compared to 4.3%)
- A smaller percentage of people with Chinese ancestry (8.5% compared to 32.8%)