Ethnicity, Language, & Religion of Australia
Ethnicity
About 90% of Australia's population is ethnically European, although the specific breakdown of ethnicities is unknown, especially since many people have multiple ancestral origins. As the British colonized the country, the most common ethnicity is English, although Welsh, Scottish, and Irish are also common. There was also a significant German immigration period and this is another common ethnicity, among many others. About 7% of the population is Asian, primarily from the Far Eastern and Southeastern countries, including China, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. Only about 1% of today's population is ethnically aboriginal. These Austronesian people are distantly related to the people of Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and others from Southeast Asia and Australasia.
Language
Nearly 80% of Australians are native English speakers and many of the other people speak English as a second language. As a fairly significant immigrant destination, there are many native speakers of hundreds of languages in Australia, most commonly Chinese, Italian, Greek, Arabic, and Vietnamese.