Table 1

Descriptive statistics of Australian population composition by country of birth, from census data 1891–1986

YearUK/Ireland
n (%)
Northern Europe
n (%)
Southern Europe
n (%)
Other place of origin
n (%)
All foreign-born
n (%)
Australian born
n (%)
Total
1891821 166 (26%)75 145 (2.4%)5307 (0.2%)113 799 (4%)1 015 417 (32%)2 158 975 (68%)3174 392
1901679 159 (18%)67 291 (2.0%)7382 (0%)111 666 (3%)865 498 (23%)2 908 303 (77%)3773 801
1911591 729 (13%)63 594 (1.4%)9348 (0.2%)122 664 (3%)787 335 (17.7%)3 667 670 (82.3)4455 005
1921676 387 (12%)52 503 (1.0%)15 539 (0.3%)109 118 (2%)853 547 (15.7%)4 581 663 (84.3%)5435 210
1933732 674 (11%)48 125 (0.7%)44 680 (0.7%)94 860 (1%)920 339 (13.8%)5 726 566 (86.2%)6646 905
1947542 910 (7%)50 180 (0.7%)58 516 (0.8%)90 995 (1%)742 601 (9.8%)6 835 171 (90.2%)7577 772
1954664 205 (7%)294 667 (3.3%)196 192 (2.2%)39 756 (0%)1 194 820 (13.4%)7 700 064 (86.6%)8894 884
1961755 402 (7%)433 999 (4.1%)406 791 (3.9%)178 612 (2%)1 774 804 (16.9%)8 729 406 (83.1%)10 504 210
1966908 664 (8%)430 574 (3.7%)554 273 (4.8%)237 409 (2%)2 130 920 (18.4%)9 419 542 (81.6%)11 550 462
19711 088 210 (9%)475 095 (3.7%)633 173 (5.0%)382 840 (3%)2 579 318 (20.2%)10 176 320 (79.8%)12 755 638
19761 117 600 (8%)460 673 (3.4%)632 550 (4.7%)508 209 (4%)2 719 032 (20.1%)10 829 617 (79.9%)13 548 649
19811 132 599 (8%)471 278 (3.2%)678 445 (4.7%)900 143 (6%)3 182 465 (21.8%)11 393 865 (78.2%)14 576 330
19861 127 191 (7%)488 825 (3.1%)662 124 (4.2%)1 213 554 (8%)3 491 694 (22.4%)12 110 456 (77.6%)15 602 150