According to the Australian 2006 Census, 33,494 Australian residents declared that they were born in Egypt and 31,786 declared that they were of Egyptian ancestry either alone or with another ancestry. Egyptian Australians might also have nominated themselves as being of Coptic ancestry (1,890 total responses). The majority of Egypt-born Australian residents are in Sydney (16,238) or Melbourne (11,156), with smaller communities located in Perth (1,407), Adelaide (982) and Brisbane (897).
Immigration from Egypt was significant in the late 1940s and 1950s, with minorities escaping the growing Arab nationalist movement in Egypt which saw the overthrow of the Egyptian monarchy and the subsequent Suez Crisis. Around 2,000 Egyptian Jews left in this period.
However the majority of Egyptian-Australians are Copts, with 19,928 Australian residents declaring membership of the Coptic Orthodox Church at the 2006 Census. It was claimed in the New South Wales Parliament in 2003 that there were 70,000 Copts in New South Wales.
- Taj El-Din Hilaly
- Robert Kabbas
- Naguib Kanawati
- Akmal Saleh
- Sam Soliman
- Joseph Tawadros
- Bishop Angaelos
- Waleed Aly
Famous quotes containing the words egyptian and/or australian:
“What was I saying? An Egyptian king
Once touched long fingers, which are not anything.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Each Australian is a Ulysses.”
—Christina Stead (1902–1983)