40.6% ▲ +684.2%
Higher than 99% of urban area areas.
- 2011: 5.2%
- 2016: 7.5%
- 2021: 40.6%
Share of people born outside Australia (birthplace-not-stated excluded).
Sydney · Urban Area
Ancestry & Birthplace in Sydney
Where people and their families come from — the ancestries they identify with and where they were born.
A huge variety of global backgrounds shapes daily life in Sydney, where 40.6% of people were born overseas. This cultural mix is far more pronounced here than in the rest of the state or nation, with the overseas-born population climbing steeply in recent years.
Ancestry
The ancestries people most identify with.
The most common ancestries are English at 22.3% and Australian at 20.8%, followed by Chinese (11.3%), Irish (7.3%) and Scottish (5.7%).
Country of birth
Australia and the largest overseas communities.
Born overseas rates are among the highest for similar areas, sitting far above the national figure at 40.6%. This represents a massive increase of 35 percentage points since 2011, with the most common birthplaces being Australia (54.9%), China (4.9%) and India (3.8%).
Sources
- Census of Population and Housing — Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021 (CC BY 4.0).
More for Sydney
Cite this page
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Ancestry & Birthplace in Sydney [Census of Population and Housing]. CensusAtlas, used under CC BY 4.0. https://censusatlas.au/region/sua/1031/sydney/topic/ancestry-heritage