Chinese is Australia’s second most-spoken language, census shows

Canberra: Australia’s population is approaching a tipping point, with nearly as many first- or second-generation migrants as people who are at least third-generation Australians.

The 2016 census results, published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday, reveal the changing impact of migration.

Nearly half (49 per cent) of all Australians were either born overseas (first generation) or have at least one parent born overseas (second generation). The remaining 51 per cent were at least third generation — born in Australia to Australian-born parents.

Fifty years ago, the overseas-born population was only 18 per cent of the total.

At that time, a third (32 per cent) were born in England, with only 1.6 per cent from India and China combined.

In the 2016 census, for the first time, most people born overseas were from Asia, not Europe.

Even within second-generation Australians, demographic splits are beginning to emerge, with those aged 40 and under more likely to be of Asian ethnicity and those over 40 more likely to have both parents born in a European country.

As of 2015, Australia had the ninth-largest number of overseas-born people of any country, and the highest proportion of its population, at 26 per cent — ahead of New Zealand (23 per cent) and Canada (22 per cent), the bureau found. The median age of Australia’s overseas-born population was 44, compared with 34 among those born in Australia. The ABS linked this to large-scale migration waves from Europe after the second world war.

Those born in Asia had a median age of 35, reflecting the increase in migration from China, India, Vietnam and the Philippines since 1975. Of the overseas-born population, nearly one in five (18 per cent) had arrived since the start of 2012. Over 40 per cent of the overseas-born population spoke only English at home in 2016, with Mandarin the second-most commonly spoken language, at 8.3 per cent. Most overseas-born Australians (61 per cent) lived in New South Wales and Victoria, though there has been a notable increase in the proportion in Queensland (from 9.5 per cent to 16.5 per cent in 2016) and Western Australia (from 9.3 per cent to 12.9 per cent) since 1966.