Australia Country Overview
Where is Australia located? Australia is one of the largest continents on earth and is located northwest of New Zealand in the southern hemisphere. It covers an area of around 7.7 square kilometers. The world time zone map divides countries into time zones according to their time offset from the official world time. Due to its enormous area, the continent is divided into three such time zones. On the one hand there is the western time zone, which includes ‘Western Australia’, including the city of Perth, and is 8 hours ahead of the official world time (also called international UTC). The second, central time zone contains both ‘Southern Australia’, eg Adelaide, and ‘Northern Territory’, eg Darwin. The central time zone is 9.5 hours ahead of the world clock. The third time zone is in the eastern part of Australia and includes the states of Queensland, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania. The cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Cairns are also located here. In this time zone, the difference to universal time is 10 hours, which is also ahead. Interestingly, only in the southern part of the central time zone and the eastern time zone does the daylight saving time change.
Population Distribution
As of 2023, the latest population of Australia is 25,466,459, based on our calculation of the current data from UN (United Nations).
| Total population | 25,466,459 |
| Population growth rate | 1.40% |
| Birth rate | 12.10 births per 1,000 people |
| Life expectancy | |
| Overall life expectancy | 81.98 years |
| Men life expectancy | 79.55 years |
| Women life expectancy | 84.54 years |
| Age structure | |
| 0-14 years | 17.75% |
| 15-64 years | 65.81% |
| 65 years and above | 16.44% |
| Median age | 38.40 years |
| Gender ratio (Male to Female) | 1.01 |
| Population density | 3.29 residents per km² |
| Urbanization | 92.00% |
| Ethnicities | |
| predominantly European (mainly British and Irish) origin, 2% Asians (mainly Chinese and Vietnamese), 2.5% indigenous population (Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders) | |
| Religions | |
| Anglicans 26.1%; Catholics 26%; Other Christians 24.3%; non-Christians 11%; Others 12.6% | |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | 0.938 |
| HDI ranking | 6th out of 194 |
People in Australia
About 24 million people live in Australia. Most of them are descendants of those who at some point immigrated from Europe, especially Great Britain. In addition to the British, people from Italy, Germany, Poland and the Balkans also emigrated to Australia. More than a million people in Australia have German ancestors.
In addition, there are immigrants from Asia such as Indians, Pakistanis or Sinhalese. Even today, many people immigrate to Australia. Since the beginning of the last century, the number of immigrants from Asia has exceeded that of Europeans.
Australia is 21.5 times the size of Germany. So it has a very low population compared to its size.
Most of the people live in the big cities of Australia
The birth rate is increasing in Australia and people’s life expectancy is high. Most people live in cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth or Adelaide. Over a million people live here, in Sydney and Melbourne even more than 4 million. By the way, Australia is the country with the most people living in cities: 89 out of 100 Australians live in a city.
The parts of the country in the interior of Australia are almost uninhabited. Living conditions here are harsh and there is often a lack of water to survive. That is why most of the people settled in the cities. 92 out of 100 people come from Europe, 7 out of 100 from Asia.
Who lived in Australia first?
Only two out of 100 residents of Australia belong to the Aborigines, the original population (read: Aborridschinis). That’s about half a million people. But the name Aborigine does not come from them, the Europeans named them that way. Therefore, the original residents of Australia do not use the term themselves.
For this reason, the term indigenous people is now used more often. The different tribes also have different names like Yolngu, who live in the north, Murri, who live in the east or Wonghi in the west. Then there are the Koori from the southeast, Nanga from the south and a few more.
These tribes have lived in Australia for a long time and have their own culture and language. Before the Europeans settled the Australian continent, the locals lived there in harmony with nature. They adapted to the harsh conditions of the desert country. But the Europeans destroyed this culture.
Second class people
The Europeans saw “second class” people in the native population and destroyed their livelihoods. The British had declared the country to be Terra Nullius, i.e. land that was supposedly uninhabited. As a result, the original population had no rights that they could claim. For a long time the Aborigines had to fight for their rights, which they were denied. You can find out more about it in everyday life and in history and politics.
Languages in Australia
The official language is English. In addition, around 50 native languages have been preserved. However, Australian English differs a bit from British or American English.
Religions in Australia
Most Australians are Christians, but there are also few Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus. Some of the indigenous population still lives their original belief in nature.