‘Twelve charts on race and racism in Australia‘, The Conversation, 28 November 2018
Graphs on ancestry, country of birth, overseas-born residents, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, migration patterns, attitude to diversity, attitude to non-discriminatory migration policies, attitudes to assimilation, attitudes to particular groups, racial discrimination, background of people in gaol. Statistics are from ABS Census 2016 or other authoritative sources. Dozens of comments came from readers.
At the time of the 2016 Census, Australia’s population comprised people from more than 190 countries and 300 different ancestries. Almost half the population were either first- or second-generation Australian, and more than 300 different languages were spoken in homes.
But we are still predominantly an Anglo society, reflected in the number of people who identity as English, Scottish or Irish. Collectively, Anglo ancestries made up more than 50% of the population (excluding people who identified as Australian).
Worth a close read for its comments on individual graphs. See also reports on the Scanlon Foundation Social Surveys (Search engine of this website or Google). Follow this up with Gwenda Tavan’s chapter in The Honest History Book (NewSouth 2017): ‘From those who’ve come across the seas: Immigration and multiculturalism’.
