About Australia

This story map displays some interesting facts about Australia. Australia is one of the most multicultural countries in the world and home to the world's oldest continuing culture. Over 30 per cent of the Australian resident population was born overseas. While English is the national language, more than 300 languages are spoken in Australian homes(Powell, 2022). 

On the 9th of August 2016, there were 23,401,892 people living in Australia. New South Wales remains the populous state with 7,381,100 people counted, ahead of Victoria which has a population of 5,713,000 and Queensland which has a count of 4,638,100.

Australians are getting older. The median age in 2016 was 38 years, up from 37 years in 2011(Simon-Davies, 2017). Northern Territory recorded the lowest median age at 32. Interestingly, the median age of those born in Asia was 35 years and for those born in Europe, 59 years(Simon-Davies, 2017). This trend is shown in the figure on the right-hand side.

The Murray–Darling Basin is located in the southeast of Australia and covers 14% of Australia's land area. As the map below shows, it covers large areas of New South Wales and Victoria, all of the Australian Capital Territory, and some of Queensland and South Australia.

The Basin is Australia’s most important water catchment, which provides water to 2.3 million people, and thousands of farms. It is an area of significant cultural importance to First Nations people.

Powell, J. M. (2022). Australia. Retrieved from britannica: https://www.dfat.gov.au/about-australia

Simon-Davies, J. (2017). Census 2016 - Summary of results. Retrieved from aph: https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2017/June/Census_2016_-_Summary_of_results