1.2.1 Total elements

It is known that the elements according to the official census cannot be used as a base for the calculation of the population of the Greek element.Generally this applies to all the countries of reception of Greek immigrants and not only for Australia.The main reason is that makes census elements relatively inadequate for reliable estimates is that it refers only to the Greek emigrants whose both or one of their parents were have been born in Greece, to Greek emigrants that have been born in Greece, but none of their parents had been born birth there and naturally to Greek emigrants that havee been born in Greece. There are not included the Greek emigrants whose both parents have been born in Australia, that is to say the Greek-Australians of second, third, and fourth generation, neither the Greek emigrants from Cyprus, neither the Greek emigrants that haven't been born in Greece.Occasionally there have been presented in the bibliography various estimates, that raise the total Greek population of Australia to 700.000 or 750.000 in 1980.Other calculations report the Greek element to almost 400.000 individuals.

The Australian census of 1986 is helping considerably in the determination of the Greek population of Australia.According to the facts of that census (the elements from the newer census still have not become available), the total population of Greek origin in Australia is, 137.611 individuals (70.687 men and 66.924 women) of first generation (being born in Greece) and 137.688 individuals of second generation (being born in Australia with both or one of their parents having been born in Greece).The total rises to 275.299 individuals.

However, in a question that was raised for the first time in that census, "What is your origin?", 336.782 individuals answered that they were of Greek origin. This number includes individuals that have been born in Australia (49.8%), in Greece (39.3%), in Cyprus (4.8%), in Egypt (2.5%), elsewhere (2.5%), while a 1.1% did not answer.It should be marked that in the question were not given explanations as for what it means "origin", in consequence each one gave its own interpretation of the term.The total population of Australia in 1986 was 15.602.156, accordingly those of Greek origin represent the 2.16%.

Important it is the fact that from the population that had been born in Greece (first generation), a 3% declares being of "Macedonian" origin, separating it from the Greek origin.In Western Australia, this percentage reaches the 23.9%.

We believe, therefore, that the calculations that estimate the population of Greeks of Australia to 400.000 individuals, are the most reliable.

The current geographic distribution of first and second generation Greeks in Australia does not have great differences.Specifically, 46.79% live in Victoria, 32.93% in New South Wales, 10.25% in South Australia, 3.87% in Queensland, 3.38% in the Western Australia, 1.22% in Australian Capital Territory, 0.96% in the New Territories, and 0.60% in Tasmania.

This population is in the majority urban.Indeed, the first generation lives at 95.6% in the 12 big Australian cities (Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, Geelong, Brisbane, Gold Coast-Tweed, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Darwin, Canberra-Queanbeyan), while 77.4% live in Melbourne and Sydney. Roughly half of this population (47.6%) lives in Melbourne.

The age-related profile of the first and second generation differs considerably. A great percentage of emigrants first generation is in the age-related team of 30-54 years old (64.4%) and the rest in the age-related team of the 0-4 years old (0.2%). The average age of the emigrants that had been born in Greece is 46.2 years. The corresponding average in Australia is 31.1 years. Only a percentage of 1.5% is less than 15 years old, while the corresponding percentage in the population of Australia despite origin is 23.3%. This low percentage is because of the low migration from Greece to Australia nowadays.

We can therefore say that the Greek element of first generation in Australia is aged.Men are more than women (the corresponding percentages are 51.4% and 48.6%), but in certain age-related teams (30-54 and 65 +) women are more. It's indicative that this characteristic, the supremacy of men, is observed continuously in all the periods of history of the Australian hellenism and in certain of them is indeed particularly intense, particularly in the beginning of the century, when a percentage of 95% of the Greeks in Australia were men.

On the contrary, the bigger percentage of those of second generation is found in the age-related team of 5-14 years (31.8%) and the smallest in the age-related team of 65 + years (0.6%).Thus, the Greek element of second generation is rather young in age.

This paragraph concerns only the emigrants of first generation, that means those who had been born in Greece.Their average time of staying in Australia is 22.7 years, while most of them were installed in Australia in the period 1962-1966. A percentage of 22.5% live in Australia more than 30 years, while hardly a percentage of 4.6% live in Australia less than 10 years.

Compared to emigrants of other nationalities, the Greeks of Australia appear to have a bigger rate of acquisition of the Australian of citizenship.Indeed, a percentage of 90.7% being born in Greece have acquired the Australian citizenship. This percentage risesd to 95% for those that live in Australia more than 20 years.