Demography
The 2006 Census counted 106,524 Australian residents who were born in Germany. However, 811,541 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).
| No. of arrivals July 1949 - June 2000 |
July 1949 - June 1959 | July 1959 - June 1970 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | 255,930 | 162,756 | 50,452 |
| Total settler arrivals | 5,640,638 | 1,253,083 | 1,445,356 |
| Percentage of settlers from Germany | 4.5% | 13.0% | 3.5% |
In December 2001, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs estimated that there were 15,000 Australian citizens resident in Germany. It is not clear what proportion of this number are returned emigrants with Australian citizenship or their German Australian children, and what number is simply other Australians in Germany for business or other reasons.
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, the Chinese languages, Italian, Greek, Arabic, Vietnamese, Spanish and Tagalog.
Read more about this topic: German Australian