Not many people know that the ABS has published a large amount of historical Census data on their website. If you want to see how the Australian population, and the dwellings they live in, has changed over the years, then this data is a real treasure trove. This blog looks at countries of birth in Australia, comparing 1971 and 2021 Census data.
Not all Census collections are the same
CALD communities can be measured in a number of ways, and I've blogged about this on many occasions. I generally recommend looking at birthplace, language and ancestry to get a full picture. Religion data can also be useful. But this isn't always possible, because the data collected in each Census varies over time. When I started the research for this blog, I was surprised to learn that language data was not collected in the 1971 Census. A question on language spoken was asked in the 1933 Census, but it did not appear again until 1976. What a missed opportunity to track changes in some of our CALD communities, especially those where birthplace is not a good indicator of cultural background.
The ABS has previously published a fantastic resource called How Australia takes a Census. This included a list of all the topics, and the years they were included in the Census collection. Basic demographic characteristics, such as age, sex and marital status, have been collected in each Census since 1911. Others, such as the material of outer walls, are no longer asked.
Even if the topic has been included in each Census, the questions may change. As a user, it's important to understand the context in which the question was asked so that the data is interpreted correctly. In addition, the categories used for coding may change over time. This is very apparent in the birthplace data. Changes in the geopolitical landscape mean that some countries that existed in 1971 no longer exist today eg Yugoslavia. The reverse is also true eg Serbia, Croatia etc. Others have changed name eg Ceylon is now Sri Lanka.
Main countries of birth, 1971 and 2021
In 1971, approximately 20% of the Australian population was born overseas. By 2021, this had increased to 27.6%. There were almost 250 countries represented in the 2021 Census data. Unfortunately it's difficult to get an estimate for 1971 due to the way in which the data is published. No fancy Tablebuilder in 1971 to sort these things out!
The table below shows the top ten countries of birth (aside from Australia) in 1971 and 2021. England was by far the most common country of birth in both years. This of course reflects sustained migration, as well as social and economic ties, over the last 200 plus years. However there have been significant changes to Australia's overseas migration program in the last 50 years. In addition, globalisation has resulted in increasing volumes of migration overall, due to people seeking employment and education opportunities beyond their country of birth. This has had major impacts on which countries now seek residence in Australia. Only three countries on the 1971 list are still in the top 10 in 2021 - aside from England these are Italy and New Zealand.
Countries such as India and China do not appear on the top 10 list in 1971, but are ranked second and third respectively in 2021. Conversely, the number of people born in Italy and Greece has declined by more than 40% since 1971. This blog explains how these communities are ageing, and shows how language and ancestry data provides alternative ways of measuring the size of CALD communities.
As mentioned above, there were only three countries that appeared in the top ten list in both 1971 and 2021. The graph below visualises the changes in a slightly different way, looking at the size of all the countries that appeared in both lists. Some assumptions had to be made about the size of some communities due to geopolitical changes or a lack of data.
The rise of Asian migration is clear to see in this graph. Only India and China had modest sized communities in 1971. There was a wave of migration from India in the 1960s and early 1970s, and in 1971 the Indian born community numbered 29,211. The Chinese born community was smaller in size (17,601) due to restrictions on arrivals over many decades. Despite this, migration from China has a long history in Australia, dating back to the Gold Rush of the 1850s. Since 1971, the population of both communities has grown substantially.
Other Asian countries show a similar trend, but off a far smaller base. For instance, there were around 2,500 Philippine born people in 1971, but this has increased more than 100-fold to reach more than 293,000 in 2021. Vietnam was not even separately classified in 1971, such was the small size of the community. Instead, Vietnam was grouped together with Laos and Cambodia, resulting in a population of just 717 persons.
The reverse is true for many European countries. Aside from Italy and Greece, other examples include Malta, Netherlands and Scotland. The latter is a curious case - since 1971 the Scottish born population has declined by 25%. This has occurred despite the England born population increasing slightly over the 50 years. Further investigation reveals that the population born in Wales is 25% higher in 2021 compared to 1971, whereas those born in Northern Ireland is relatively steady. If these four countries are combined to create a total for the United Kingdom, then the population born there was 1.046 million in 1971, increasing by 5% to 1.098 million in 2021.
Summary
Historical data from the Census of Population and Housing shows how Australia has changed over the decades. The data shows that in 1971 and 2021, England was the main country of birth aside from Australia. In 1971, the main countries of birth were primarily European, but in 2021 they are most are Asian countries. This reflects changes in Australia's migration program, but also global forces influencing employment and education.
No comments:
Post a Comment