Vite Italiane
Italian Lives in Western Australia
Fact Sheet: Italians in Western Australia
1. Numbers
According to the 2006 Census, Western Australia is home to:
¾
¾
¾
¾
20,934 people who were born in Italy
32,897 people who speak Italian at home
Around 67,000 people whose parent or parents were born in Italy
Around 100,000 people who claim Italian ancestry.
2. Historical trends
The number of Italian-born people in Western Australia peaked in the early 1970s and has since
steadily declinined.
Table 1: Italian-born people in Western Australia, 1881-2006
Year
1881
1891
1901
1911
1921
1933
1947
1954
1961
1966
1971
1976
1981
1986
1991
1996
2001
2006
Number of Italian
born
10
36
1,354
2,361
1,975
4,588
5,422
17,295
25,249
28,141
30,541
29,317
29,211
27,751
26,875
25,113
23,062
20,934
% of the WA
population
0.0%
0.1%
0.7%
0.8%
0.6%
1.0%
1.1%
2.7%
3.4%
3.3%
2.9%
2.5%
2.2%
1.9%
1.7%
1.5%
1.3%
1.1%
Sources: Australian Bureau of Statistics Census Statistics 1901-2006 and WA Year Books 1890-2001.
3. Geographic distrubtion
a) Italians in Western Australia
Most Italian-born people in Western Australia (90%) live in the Perth metropolitan area. In Perth,
the local government areas with the highest numbers of Italian-born residents are: Stirling (4,547);
Cockburn (1,678); Bayswater (1,569); Vincent (1,219); Fremantle (1,086); Swan (1,000); Melville
(921); Wanneroo (903); Joondalup (844); Canning (789); Kalamunda (540) and Victoria Park
(473).
Most Western Australians who claim Italian ancestry also live in Perth (84%). The local
government areas with the highest concentrations of people of Italian ancestry are: Stirling,
Cockburn, Joondalup, Bayswater, Melville, Swan, Wanneroo, Canning, Gosnells and Vincent.
However, there are also people of Italian ancestry in other areas of the state.
Figure 1: Distribution of people claiming Italian ancestry in WA, 2006
Kimberley 0.4%
Pilbara 0.8%
Central 2%
Midlands 1.3%
S Eastern 1.5%
Perth
83%
Upper Great Southern
0.4%
South West 9.5%
Lower Great Southern
1.5%
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006 Census.
b) Italians in Australia
The majority of Italian Australians live in Victoria and New South Wales.The proportion of Italian
Australians who live in Western Auystralia steadily declined over the last century. Today, just over
10% of Italian-born Australians live in Western Australia.
Table 2: Distribution of Italian-born people in Australia, 1951-2006
Vic
NSW
SA
WA
Q’land
ACT
Tas
NT
1911
22.3%
25.6%
2.7%
35.1%
13.8%
0.0%
0.3%
0.0%
1921
22.7%
25.6%
4.2%
24.3%
22.6%
0.0%
0.5%
0.1%
1933
21.9%
23.6%
5.6%
17.1%
31.2%
0.1%
0.3%
0.1%
1954
35.4%
25.0%
9.9%
14.4%
14.0%
0.3%
0.8%
0.3%
1961
39.9%
27.3%
11.5%
11.1%
8.8%
0.6%
0.7%
0.2%
1971
42.1%
27.8%
11.2%
10.6%
6.7%
0.9%
0.5%
0.4%
1981
41.8%
27.9%
11.4%
10.6%
6.5%
1.0%
0.5%
0.3%
1991
41.5%
27.7%
11.4%
10.5%
7.0%
1.1%
0.5%
0.3%
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census 1911-2006.
Figure 2: Distribution of Italian-born people in Australia, 2006
WA
10.5%
NT
0.2%
SA
11.3%
Qld
7%
NSW
27.8%
Vic
41.6%
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006 Census
Tas
0.5%
ACT
1.1%
2001
41.5%
27.7%
11.5%
10.5%
6.9%
1.1%
0.5%
0.2%
2006
41.6%
27.8%
11.3%
10.5%
7.0%
1.1%
0.5%
0.2%
4. Year of Arrival
The vast majority of Italian-born people in Western Australia arrived before 1991. They heyday of
Italian migration to Western Australia was the 1950s and early 1960s. This fits with the general
pattern of Italian migration to Australia where an annual average of 18,000 Italians emigrated to
Australia between 1951 and 1961. Only about 3% of Italian-born people in WA (around 700
people) have come from Italy to Western Australia since 1991.
5. Age
The population of Italian-born people in Western Australia is an ageing one. 52% are 65 years of
age or older compared with around 12% of the total population of Western Australia. Even
compared with over overseas-born groups, a high propotion of Italians are mature aged or elderly.
Table 3: Age distribution of Italian-born population in Western Australia relative to other
birthplace groups, 2006
0-14
yrs
Birthplace
Australia
China
Germany
India
Malaysia
Netherlands
New Zealand
Singapore
South Africa
UK
Italy
% of Total
WA Pop.
15-24
yrs
25-44
yrs
45-54
yrs
55-64
yrs
65-74
yrs
75-84
yrs
85+
yrs
26.4
4.5
3.0
4.9
5.0
2.4
6.9
10.8
15.8
4.8
0.7
16.1
26.3
4.0
7.3
21.0
2.0
11.1
19.1
15.5
5.0
0.7
27.4
37.8
23.0
29.5
30.4
13.4
42.0
30.5
35.8
28.3
7.3
12.3
13.3
14.0
17.6
19.9
13.6
21.8
20.4
16.4
20.00
13.0
8.6
6.8
32.3
18.9
14.5
32.9
11.4
11.1
9.5
19.4
26.3
4.9
5.3
12.4
11.6
6.4
18.1
3.7
5.4
4.1
12.7
26.7
3.2
4.2
9.5
7.8
2.3
13.6
1.3
2.0
2.4
7.0
20.6
1.1
1.8
1.8
2.4
0.5
4.0
0.4
0.6
0.6
2.7
4.9
20.2
14.1
28.5
14.3
10.9
6.5
4.1
1.4
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006 Census.
6. Gender ratios
From the colonial era right through to the post-war period, Italian migrants to Australia have been
predominantly male. The imbalance in the sex ratio between male and female Italian migrants was
certainly not unique to Australia. Emigration from Italy in the 19th and 20th Centuries was an
overwhelmingly male phenomenon: men ventured forth as temporary migrant or sojourners for
short work seasons abroad with some women and children following later if a decision had been
made to establish more permanent settlement in the host society. Italian immigration to Australia in
the years before World War Two was no exception to this pattern.
Figure 3: Sex ratios of the Italian-born population in Australia, 1881-2001
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1881 1901 1911 1921 1933 1947 1954 1961 1966 1971 1981 1991 2001
Male
Female
Source: Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, Census of Australia: 1881-2001.
The ratio of male to female Italian born persons in Australia gradually evened out over the course of
the post-war period. However during the 1950s and 1960s, there was still a marked imbalance
between the numbers of Italian men and women in Australia. For example, in 1954, for every 100
Italian-born women in Australia, there were 203 Italian-born men. As Table 4 below shows, this sex
imbalance was more pronounced in Western Australia until the 1950s after which it fell more in line
with national trends.
Table 4: Sex Ratios of the Italian Born Population in Western Australia, 1901-2006
Census
Year
1901
1911
1921
1933
1947
1954
1961
1971
1981
1991
2001
2006
Male
1,296
2,151
1,658
3,683
3,856
11,735
14,934
17,139
16,106
14,573
12,284
10,939
Female
58
210
317
905
1,566
5,560
10,315
13,402
13,107
12,302
10,774
9,995
%M
96
91
84
80
71
68
59
56
55
54
53
52
%F
4
9
16
20
29
32
41
44
45
46
47
48
Total
1,354
2,361
1,975
4,588
5,422
17,295
25,249
30,541
29,211
26,875
23,058
20,934
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Censuses 1901-2006.
7. Employment status
Given that people born in Italy are much older than the general population in Western Australia,
fewer Italian-born people are active in the labour force today. Among Italian-born people aged 15
years and over, around one third (34%) are currently working compared with around 60% for the
overall population. The majority of Italian-born people in Western Australia (61%) are retired from
the labour force.
8. Language
In total, 32, 897 people in Western Australia (including those born in and outside of Italy) speak
Italian at home. This figure has declined by 3,700 (almost 10%) since the last Census in 2001.
Italian speakers represent 1.7% of the Western Australian population making Italian the most
widely spoken language other than English in the state.
Of the 20,934 Italian-born people in WA:
•
•
•
19% speak English only
61% speak Italian and speak English very well or well
19% speak Italian and do not speak English well
Italian-born men are slightly more likely to speak English only and are more proficient in English
than Italian-born women.
9. Religion
Italian-born people in Western Australia are predominantly Catholic. At the 2001 Census, 93% of
people born in Italy stated they were ‘Catholic’. Italians make up almost 5% of the 450,000
Catholics in WA. They also make up a small but significant proportion (2.5%) of the 10,000
Jehovah’s Witnesses in Western Australia. Compared to the general population, Italian-born people
were also much more likely to state that they followed a religious creed. While no figures are
available for Western Australia specifically, only 2% of Italian-born people in the whole of
Australia stated they had ‘no religion’ compared with over 15% of the national population.
10. Ancestry
102 019 people in Western Australia claim Italian ancestry. This figure includes people born in Italy
as well as those born in Australia or elsewhere.
Around 80,000 Australian-born people in Western Australia claim Italian ancestry through their
parents, grandparents or more distant ancestors. Of these:
¾ 32,601 had two Australian-born parents
¾ 13,868 had overseas-born fathers
¾ 5,440 had overseas-born mothers
____________________________________
Sources
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Censuses 1901 -2006
Western Australian Year Books, 1890-2001.
The People of Australia: Statistics from the 2001 Census, Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous
Affairs, 2003.
Castles, S. et al., Australia’s Italians: culture and community in a changing society, 1992.
Gentili, J. Italian Roots in Australian Soil: Italian Migration to Western Australia 1829-1946, 1983.
Rosoli, G. (ed.) Un Secolo di Emigrazione Italiana 1876-1976, 1978.
Fact Sheet compiled by Susanna Iuliano
Posted: 8 November 2004 (Updated August 2008)