As of December 2023, the proportion of the Australian population that lived in New South Wales amounted to 31.3 percent. The Northern Territory had the least number of residents in the country, with less than one percent of the population residing there.

The share of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population in Australia in 2019 was highest in New South Wales with around 33 percent of the indigenous population in Australia living there. Comparatively, the Australian Capital Territory accounted for only one percent of the country's indigenous population in that year.

In June 2022, it was estimated that around 7.3 percent of Australians were aged between 25 and 29, and the same applied to people aged between 30 and 34. All in all, about 55 percent of Australia’s population was aged 35 years or older as of June 2022. At the same time, the age distribution of the country also shows that the share of children under 14 years old was still higher than that of people over 65 years old. A breakdown of Australia’s population growth Australia is the sixth-largest country in the world, yet with a population of around 26 million inhabitants, it is only sparsely populated. Since the 1970s, the population growth of Australia has remained fairly constant. While there was a slight rise in the Australian death rate in 2022, the birth rate of the country decreased after a slight rise in the previous year. The fact that the birth rate is almost double the size of its death rate gives the country one of the highest natural population growth rates of any high-income country.
National distribution of the population Australia’s population is expected to surpass 28 million people by 2028. The majority of its inhabitants live in the major cities. The most populated states are New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland. Together, they account for over 75 percent of the population in Australia.

At the 2021 Australian census, 278,043 people in New South Wales were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. New South Wales is Australia’s most populated state, also housing Australia’s largest city, Sydney. By comparison, Australia’s second largest state, Victoria, was home to around 66 thousand Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

There are around 800,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia, which represents just over three percent of the Australian population. Indigenous people are often referred to as Australia's first people or the traditional custodians of the land in recognition of their ancestors inhabiting Australia more than 60,000 years ago. Australia's Indigenous peoples are represented by two distinct groups. Aboriginal people come from the Australian mainland. Torres Strait Islander people inhabit the group of Islands between the northern tip of Queensland and Papua New Guinea and represent less than 40,000 people.

Closing the gap

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples experience significantly poorer health and wellbeing outcomes when compared to their non-Indigenous Australian counterparts. The average life expectancy of Indigenous Australians is around eight years shorter than that of the non-Indigenous population. In education, Indigenous Australians are also underrepresented, but attendance rates are improving and in 2019, full-time Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students numbered well over 200,000 people.

The statistic shows the total population of Australia from 1980 to 2023, with projections up until 2030. In 2023, Australia had a total population of about 26.95 million people. Population of Australia Australia is among the ten largest countries in the world, in terms of area size, although its total population is low in relation to this. Much of Australia’s interior remains uninhabited, as the majority of Australians live in coastal metropolises and cities. Most of the population is of European descent (predominantly British), although there is a growing share of the population with Asian heritage; only a small percentage belongs to the indigenous Aboriginal population. Australia's year-on-year population growth is fairly high compared to most other economically and demographically advanced nations, due to comparatively high rates of natural increase and immigration. Living standards Standard of living is fairly high in Australia, which can be seen when looking at the Human Development Index, which ranks countries by their level of human development and living standards, such as their unemployment rate, literacy rate, or life expectancy at birth. Life expectancy of Australia’s population is quite high in international comparison, for example, Australia is also among the leading countries when it comes to this key factor. Economically speaking, Australia is also among the leading nations, with a steadily rising employment rate, an increasing gross domestic product (GDP) with a steady growth rate, and a relatively stable share in the global GDP.

As of March 31, 2025, **** percent of the population in Western Australia had private health insurance that covered general treatment. At the same time, around **** percent of the entire Australian population had some form of general treatment cover.

In 2019, 65.9 percent of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population aged 20 to 24 years had attained a year 12 equivalent level of education. Of this group, Indigenous Australians in the ACT and Victoria were leading the other states and territories. Although year 12 equivalent attainment and enrollment rates for Indigenous Australians have been increasing in recent years, they still fall behind that of the non-Indigenous population. Closing the gap on EducationIn an effort to close the gap in disadvantage for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the federal, state and territory Governments created the Closing the Gap Framework in 2008. The Framework identified seven target areas for improvement, which were early childhood, schooling, health, economic participation, healthy homes, safe communities, and governance and leadership. Only early childhood and schooling were considered to be on target in 2020. Child care enrollment rates were steadily increasing and more Indigenous Australian’s were attaining a bachelor degree. However, the states and territories with the highest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations seemed more likely to lag behind. EmploymentAnother target of the Closing the Gap Framework, which is closely interlinked with education, is the economic participation target. In a 2015 survey, almost a third of Aboriginal jobseekers indicated that their level of education or training was an impediment to finding work. According to the Framework, the Australian federal, state and territory governments are working toward 60 percent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25 to 64 to be employed by 2028. However, in 2019 the target was reported to be not on track, with over 50 percent of Aboriginal people unemployed or out of the labor force.

Humans have been living on the continent of Australia (name derived from "Terra Australis"; Latin for "the southern land") for approximately 65,000 years, however population growth was relatively slow until the nineteenth century. Europeans had made some contact with Australia as early as 1606, however there was no significant attempt at settlement until the late eighteenth century. By 1800, the population of Australia was approximately 350,000 people, and the majority of these were Indigenous Australians. As colonization progressed the number of ethnic Europeans increased while the Australian Aboriginal population was decimated through conflict, smallpox and other diseases, with some communities being exterminated completely, such as Aboriginal Tasmanians. Mass migration from Britain and China After the loss of its American colonies in the 1780s, the British Empire looked to other parts of the globe to expand its sphere of influence. In Australia, the first colonies were established in Sydney, Tasmania and Western Australia. Many of these were penal colonies which became home to approximately 164,000 British and Irish convicts who were transported to Australia between 1788 and 1868. As the decades progressed, expansion into the interior intensified, and the entire country was claimed by Britain in 1826. Inland colonization led to further conflict between European settlers and indigenous Australians, which cost the lives of thousands of natives. Inward expansion also saw the discovery of many natural resources, and most notably led to the gold rushes of the 1850s, which attracted substantial numbers of Chinese migrants to Australia. This mass migration from non-European countries eventually led to some restrictive policies being introduced, culminating with the White Australia Policy of 1901, which cemented ethnic-European dominance in Australian politics and society. These policies were not retracted until the second half of the 1900s. Independent Australia Australia changed its status to a British dominion in 1901, and eventually became independent in 1931. Despite this, Australia has remained a part of the British Commonwealth, and Australian forces (ANZAC) fought with the British and their Allies in both World Wars, and were instrumental in campaigns such as Gallipoli in WWI, and the South West Pacific Theater in WWII. The aftermath of both wars had a significant impact on the Australian population, with approximately 90 thousand deaths in both world wars combined, as well as 15 thousand deaths as a result of the Spanish flu pandemic following WWI, although Australia experienced a significant baby boom following the Second World War. In the past fifty years, Australia has promoted immigration from all over the world, and now has one of the strongest economies and highest living standards in the world, with a population that has grown to over 25 million people in 2020.

In 2021, around 97 percent of Indigenous Australians whose main language was a language other than English living in the Australian Capital Territory spoke English well or very well. The high level of English proficiency was also reported in Tasmania and Victoria, with a respective 96.6 and 94 percent of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations without English as their main language speaking English well or very well.

In 2021, **** percent of First Nations people aged 20 to 64 living in the Australian Capital Territory of Australia had a Bachelor degree in Australia. The national average for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders was *** percent. Just **** percent of First Nations people living in the Northern Territory had a bachelor degree as of 2021.

As of November 25, 2022 the number of COVID-19 cases in the Australian state of Victoria was at 40,482 people per 100,000 of the population. Since mid-2021, uncontained outbreaks in NSW and Victoria caused the government to move away from its former 'Covid zero' approach.

The economic impact of lockdown measures

In March of 2020, one survey showed that over 70 percent of Australians expected the economic outlook in Australia to get worse in the next three months. For most industries this prediction was correct, with the worst hit industries being hospitality, tourism, and gyms and fitness. However, some businesses flourished under the shift in pandemic consumer behavior with food delivery services, homewares and online gambling showing significant increases in consumption.

Migrants from the United Kingdom have long been Australia’s primary immigrant group and in 2023 there were roughly 960 thousand English-born people living in Australia. India and China held second and third place respectively with regard to Australia’s foreign-born population. The relative dominance of Asian countries in the list of top ten foreign-born residents of Australia represents a significant shift in Australia’s immigration patterns over the past few decades. Where European-born migrants had previously overshadowed other migrant groups, Australian migration figures are now showing greater migration numbers from neighboring countries in Asia and the Pacific. A history of migration Australia is often referred to as an ‘immigrant nation’, alongside the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. Before the Second World War, migrants to Australia were almost exclusively from the UK, however after 1945, Australia’s immigration policy was broadened to attract economic migrants and temporary skilled migrants. These policy changes saw and increase in immigrants particularly from Greece and Italy. Today, Australia maintains its status as an ‘’Immigrant nation’’, with almost 30 percent of the population born overseas and around 50 percent of the population having both that were born overseas. Australian visas The Australian immigration program has two main categories of visa, permanent and temporary. The permanent visa category offers three primary pathways: skilled, family and humanitarian. The skilled visa category is by far the most common, with more than a million permanent migrants living in Australia on this visa category at the last Australian census in 2021. Of the temporary visa categories, the higher education visa is the most popular, exceeding 180 thousand arrivals in 2023.

In Australia, nearly **** million Australians held a Pensioner Concession Card, as of December 2023, with just over *********** of those cardholders being located in the state of Victoria. Around *** million Australians were recipients of an age pension payment.

As of August 22, 2022, over 80 percent of adults in Western Australia had been vaccinated with three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. In comparison, less than 60 percent of Queensland population aged 16 years and over and received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

As of June 2023, in the state of Western Australia in Australia, about 7.7 percent of the population was between 35 and 39 years old. In comparison, just 1.9 percent of the population was over the age of 85.

Over the past 20 years, the share of the Australian population that holds a degree at a bachelor level or above has increased by more than six times, reaching 50.8 percent in 2022. Since May of 2023, however, that number has dropped to only 32 percent. In Australia, the tertiary education sector comprises both public and private institutions. The student body is comprised of both domestic and international students. University graduate employment Domestic students make up most of the graduates within Australia. The vast majority of graduates in 2022 found full-time employment after studying, with the fields of medicine, pharmacy and rehabilitation having the highest rates of employment post graduation. Dentistry graduates earned the highest median full-time salary of recent university graduates in the country. International study landscape International students are a rapidly growing segment of Australia’s tertiary education sector. The export income from international student activities amounted to just under 36.5 billion Australian dollars in 2023. Chinese students accounted for the largest share of international student enrollments in the same period. Students completing their studies at Australian universities are attracted to the prestige of obtaining a degree at some of the best universities in the world. Moreover, graduates have the opportunity to enter the Australian labor market and to apply for a permanent visa in the country.

In June 2025, Tasmania had the highest unemployment rate among all states and territories in Australia with approximately 7.5 percent of those eligible to work jobs not in employment. Victoria had the second highest unemployment rate of 6.4 percent. Unemployment FiguresAustralian unemployment figures had remained relatively stable, hovering between four to six percent for some time before recently dropping to 4.03 percent in June 2024. Unemployment levels and the economy have regularly been a priority of the Australian government and unemployment remains a key political platform for the major parties during elections. However, long-term unemployment remains a concern, with the rate almost doubling between 2009 and 2019. Unemployment among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples  The employment outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders in Australia remain a key indicator for the ongoing inequality experienced by this population group. The figures remain high, especially among Aboriginal youths aged 15 to 24 years old, with almost one-fifth who are out of regular employment as of 2015. This meant that more than 25 thousand Aboriginal youths were out of work and struggling to find employment in that year.

As of June 2024, just under ** percent of all eligible voters in Australia were enrolled to vote. New South Wales had the highest enrollment rate with ** percent, while the Northern Territory had the lowest rate, at ** percent.

In a survey conducted in 2019 in Australia, over ** percent of people living in Victoria, Australia aged 14 and older were intending to take a holiday within the next 12 months. In comparison, for the same year, just over ** percent of people living in Tasmania, Australia were intending to take a holiday during the following 12 months. Interestingly, the total share of Australians who were intending on taking a holiday within the next 12 months in 2019 had decreased from 2018.

As of August 2024, flexible working arrangements was one of the main reasons that Australians worked from home. Around six percent of Australian indicated childcare or family considerations as their main reason for working from home in the same year. Impact of COVID-19  Among workers who can work from home, 62 percent of the respondents expressed concern about going to the office and contracting COVID-19 at work in Australia in 2022. In contrast, 53 percent of respondents expressed concern about having access to Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs). Furthermore, the source claims that younger workers are far more likely to be concerned about COVID-19-related issues.  Employee burnout and flexible work experiences  Many employees experienced burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic. Burnout is a state of physical or emotional exhaustion accompanied by a sense of diminished accomplishment and loss of personal identity. Respondents who began working from home after COVID-19, as well as those who returned to their workplace after working from home, were the most likely in Australia to report feeling burnout occasionally or frequently. Those who travel for work were the most likely to report experiencing burnout infrequently. In 2022, more than 86 percent of respondents indicated that their organization provides part-time work as a flexible working practice, while 54 percent indicated that their organization provides Flexitime work in Australia. In contrast, approximately five percent of respondents stated that their organization did not provide any flexible working arrangements.