Western Australia - Demographics

Demographics

Europeans began to settle permanently in 1826 when Albany was claimed by Britain to forestall French claims to the western third of the continent. Perth was founded as the Swan River Colony in 1829 by British and Irish settlers, though the outpost languished, eventually requesting convict labour to augment its population. In the 1890s, interstate migration resulting from a mining boom in the Goldfields region resulted in a sharp population increase.

Western Australia did not receive significant flows of migrants from Britain, Ireland or elsewhere in the British Empire until the early 20th century when local projects—such as the Group Settlement Scheme of the 1920s which encouraged farmers to settle the southwest—increased awareness of Australia's western third as a destination for colonists.

Led by migrants from the British Isles, Western Australia's population developed at a faster rate during the twentieth century than it had previously. Along with the eastern states, Western Australia received large numbers of Italians, Croatians and Greeks after World War II. Despite this, Britain has contributed the greatest number of migrants to this day, and Western Australia—particularly Perth—has the highest proportion of British-born of any state: 10.6% in 2006, compared to a national average of 5.3%. This group is heavily concentrated in certain parts where they account for a quarter of the population.

In terms of ethnicity, the 2001 census data reveals that 77.5% of Western Australia's population is of European descent: the largest single group was those reporting English ethnicity, accounting for 733,783 responses (32.7%), followed by Australian with 624,259 (27.8%), Irish with 171,667 (7.6%), Italian with 96,721 (4.3%), Scottish with 62,781 (2.8%), German with 51,672 (2.3%) and Chinese with 48,894 responses (2.2%). There were 58,496 Indigenous Australians in Western Australia in 2001, forming 3.1% of the population.

In terms of birthplace, according to the 2006 census 27.1% of the population were born overseas—higher than the Australian average of 22.2%. 8.9% of Western Australians were born in England, 2.4% in New Zealand, 1.2% in Scotland, 1.1% in South Africa, and 1.1% in Italy.

Perth's metropolitan area had an estimated population of 1.55 million in 2007 (75% of the state). Other significant population centres include Mandurah (78,612), Bunbury (32,499), Geraldton (31,553), Kalgoorlie (28,242), Albany (25,196), Broome (14,436), and Port Hedland (14,000).