Total population | |
---|---|
(German 898,674 (by ancestry, 2011) 108,003 (by birth, 2011) 4.5% of total Australian population.) |
|
Regions with significant populations | |
South Australia,Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland | |
Languages | |
Australian English, German, Barossa German | |
Religion | |
Predominantly Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism. |
German Australians (German: Deutsch-Australier) are Australian citizens of ethnic German ancestry. The German community constitute one of the largest ethnic groups in Australia, numbering 898,700 or 4.5 percent of respondents in the 2011 Census. It is the sixth most identified ancestry in Australia behind 'Australian', 'English, 'Irish, 'Scottish' and 'Italian'.
The 2011 Census counted 108,000 Australian residents who were born in Germany. However, 898,700 persons identified themselves as having German ancestry, either alone or in combination with another ancestry. This number does not include people of German ancestry who selected their ancestry as simply "Australian". The 2001 census recorded 103,010 German-born in Australia, although this excludes persons of German ethnicity and culture born elsewhere, such as the Netherlands (1,030), Hungary (660) and Romania (440).
In December 2001, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs estimated that there were 15,000 Australian citizens resident in Germany.
According to the 2001 Census, the Germany-born are more likely than Australians as a whole to live in South Australia (11.9 per cent to 7.6 per cent) and Victoria (27.0 per cent to 24.7 per cent). They are also more likely to live in rural and regional areas. It is probable their German Australian children share this settlement pattern.
According to census data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2004, German Australians are, by religion, 21.7 per cent Catholic, 16.5 per cent Anglican, 32.8 per cent Other Christian, 4.2 Other Religions and 24.8 No Religion.
In 2001, the German language was spoken at home by 76,400 persons in Australia. German is the eighth most widely spoken language in the country after English, Chinese, Italian, Greek, Arabic, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Tagalog.