Australia is home to a harmonious society that holds multi-racial, multi-ethnic demography. People of Australia follow all types of religions, culture and traditions. The ethnic groups, which reside in Australia can be traced to 200 countries of the world. Their culture is close to that of the western countries and Australia has a population of over 26.4 million people.
If one were to ask a random Australian about his ethnicity, there are 36.1% chances that he is English, 35.4% chance of him being Australian, 10.4% of being Irish, 8.9% of being Scotting, 4.6% of being Italian, 4.5% of being German, 4.3% chances of being Chinese, 2.1% chances of being Indian, 1.9% chances of being Greek, and 1.4% chances of being Dutch.
This is a lot of diversity for one country. This population of 26.4 million is currently growing at a pace of 1.3% i.e., 380,000 people per year. This makes the place one of the most scarcely populated places on earth. It is surprising to note that the population of Australia is less than the cities of Shanghai, Jakarta, Tokyo and New Delhi.
If we take a look at figures, only 3 people live in Australia per square kilometre. This is in stark contrast with other countries like China where people per kilometre ratio is 146 or India where the figure touches 441. The inner areas of the country are extremely hot and this has forced the population to move to the coastal areas at east where the weather is more hospitable.
Two cities i.e., Sydney and Melbourne are the largest cities of the country hosting almost 30% population of the country. Australians are essentially second or third-generation immigrants and their antecedents can be traced to 200 countries. This makes the country a melting pot diversity and culture.
Today, Australia follows rule of law. all diversities and races are equally respected. However, this had not always been the case. In the initial years, Australia followed a strict white-only policy and it might be surprising to note that the first law passed by the independent country was to ban the Chinese from entering into their territory.
In the wake of 1970, ’s all the discriminatory laws were abolished and Australia made its march towards a more egalitarian and equal society. In the year 1973, the country adopted the concept of multiculturalism and this had become the fulcrum point of Australian democracy in the subsequent years.
When it comes to language, Australians speak Australian English, which is a derivative of British English with slight variations. Australians have a nag for diminutives and slangs, they add a, o, ie, or y at the end of the word to make it sound funky. For instance, they refer to their relative as ‘rellie’ and a journalist will be called a ‘journo’.
Their accent is somewhere a mix of American and British, but it is homogenous i.e., all Australians speak the same language with the same accent and pronunciation. Because of the heterogeneous population, the other commonly spoken languages in Australia are Hindi, mandarin, Vietnamese, Spanish, Tagalog, Cantonese, Arabic, etc.