WHAT WE DISCOVERED
First Nations
3%
CALD
39%
3. FINDINGS
← Figure 1 Australia’s Population
The Australian Population
3.1
I
n its 2018 report on cultural diversity in Australian leadership, the Australian Human Rights Commission analysed Australian
Bureau of Statistics data to estimate the cultural diversity of the Australian population as follows:
• 3% of Australians identify as having First Nations heritage
• 39% of Australians identify as coming from a cultural background other than a solely Anglo-Celtic background*
• 58% of Australians identify as coming from an Anglo-Celtic cultural background.†
Non-CALD
58
%
by Cultural Background
In addition, the report specified that 18% of Australians come from a ‘European’ background, which refers to all other European backgrounds other than Anglo-Celtic, i.e. those European countries where English is not the first language, e.g. France, Germany, Poland, Latvia, Greece, Italy and so on. Twenty-one per cent come from a ‘non-European’ background, which refers to all other backgrounds including Asian, South American, African, Middle Eastern, Oceanic and Pacific Islander. For the purposes of our research, we refer to the 39% of Australians who identify as coming from cultural backgrounds other than a solely Anglo-Celtic background as ‘culturally and/or linguistically diverse Australians’ (CALD). We refer to the 58% of Australians who identify as coming from an AngloCeltic cultural background as non-CALD.
* Australian Human Rights Commission (2018), op. cit., 4. The Australian Human Rights Commission data is based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census data 2011 and 2016, and the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Race and Cultural Identity Employee Resource Group analysis: Australian Human Rights Commission (2018), op. cit., 7 and 33. † ‘Anglo-Celtic background’ refers to those cultural backgrounds that are English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish: Australian Human Rights Commission (2018), op. cit., 4.
What We Discovered 13