Australia

Full name of country: Commonwealth of Australia

Region: Australia-Oceania

Official language: English

Population: 26,768,598 (2024 est.)

Nationality: Australian(s) (noun), Australian (adjective)

Land area: 7,682,300 sq km (2,966,151 sq miles)

Water area: 58,920 sq km (22,749 sq miles)

Capital: Canberra

National anthem: "Advance Australia Fair," by Peter Dodds Mccormick

National holiday: Australia Day (commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet of Australian settlers), 26 January (1788); ANZAC Day (commemorates the anniversary of the landing of troops of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during World War I at Gallipoli, Turkey), April 25 (1915)

Population growth: 1.13% (2024 est.)

Time zone: Australia covers several time zones: UTC +8, UTC +9.5, and UTC +10.

Flag: The flag of Australia features the Union Jack in its upper hoist (left) side; it takes up roughly one-quarter of the flag’s area. The same deep blue background of the Union Jack is the color of the rest of the flag. Below the Union Jack is a seven-pointed white star, known as the Federation Star or the Star of the Commonwealth. On the fly (right) side of the flag are five white stars arranged to resemble the Southern Cross constellation. Four of these stars are larger and feature seven points. One star is smaller and features five points.

Independence: January 1, 1901 (from the federation of UK colonies)

Government type: federal parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy; a Commonwealth realm

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Legal system: common law system based on the English model

The island of Australia lies in the Southern Hemisphere, south of Indonesia and north of Antarctica. The eastern half of the world's smallest continent is surrounded by the South Pacific Ocean, and the western half by the Indian Ocean.

The sixth-largest country in the world, the Commonwealth of Australia is known for its strong market economy, aided by significant natural resources, and enjoys a worldwide reputation as a tourist destination. Many travelers visit the country for its natural wonders, which include the Great Barrier Reef.

Note: unless otherwise indicated, statistical data in this article is sourced from the CIA World Factbook, as cited in the bibliography.

People and Culture

Population:Population density in Australia is only about 3.3 people per square kilometer (about 8.5 people per square mile), making it the most sparsely populated continent after Antarctica and one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world, at the opposite extreme of densely populated nearby Asian neighbors such as India. Australia's land area nearly equals that of the contiguous United States, but its population is only a fraction of the US population.

Australia is divided into six states (New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia) and two territories (Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory). There is also the Jervis Bay Territory, which is a non-self-governing territory; although the Jervis Bay Territory is not part of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), ACT laws apply there.

About 86.6 percent of Australia's population lives in urban centers, predominantly along the coast. Large cities on the country's east coast include Brisbane, in Queensland, and Sydney, in New South Wales. Other major cities are Melbourne, in Victoria; Adelaide, in South Australia; Perth, on the southwest coast of Western Australia; and the capital, Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).

The majority of Australians are of European descent. Between 1950 and the 2010s, immigration from Southeast Asian countries, especially Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, and India, increased significantly. The proportion of Australians who were born overseas in Asia increased from 24 percent of the overseas-born population in 2001 to 40 percent in 2016. In the same time period, the proportion of overseas-born people from Europe declined from 52 percent in 2001 to 34 percent in 2016. Still, despite this increasing diversity, in 2021 an estimated one third of Australians claimed English ancestry.

In 2021 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up an estimated 2.9 percent of the population, up from 2.5 percent in 2011.

According to 2021 data, Australians were approximately 18.1 percent Protestant and 20 percent Catholic. Buddhists made up 2.4 percent of the population, and 3.2 percent were Muslim. Approximately 30 percent of Australians were affiliated with no religion.

English is the principal language spoken in Australia. The next most commonly spoken languages are Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese, Vietnamese, and Italian.

Indigenous People: Australia has been inhabited for approximately fifty thousand years. The continent's Indigenous people are Aboriginal Australians, who are thought to have migrated from Southeast Asia across a land bridge, and Torres Strait Islanders. These two distinct groups are sometimes collectively referred to as Indigenous Australians.

Australia was first sighted by Europeans in 1606. The Dutch called the island New Holland. In 1770, Captain James Cook claimed the island, which he called New South Wales, for Great Britain. The name "Australia" is derived from the Latin word australis, meaning "southern"; usage of this name dates to the late eighteenth century.

Before Australia was settled by Europeans, the Indigenous population numbered around 350,000. This number was greatly reduced by introduced diseases, forced removal, and genocide. As European settlers established large livestock operations in the Australian Outback, Aboriginal peoples were forced into virtual slavery as their lands shrank and their living conditions declined.

In 1967, Indigenous Australians were granted the right to be counted in the census, receiving greater political and legal representation at the same time. Today, quality of life among Aboriginal peoples, including life expectancy, health, poverty, employment, and education, is significantly lower than that of the White Australian population. Starting in the late twentieth century, Aboriginal Australians began a concerted effort to fight for wider recognition of their land claims and acknowledgment of their mistreatment at the hands of European colonists.

Aboriginal Australians live mostly in rural areas of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Most of Australia's Torres Strait Islanders live on the islands off the coast of the Cape York Peninsula.

Education: About half of Australian children begin their education with preschool. State-run schools provide compulsory primary education, although a significant percentage of school-age children attend private Catholic schools and a slightly smaller percentage are enrolled at independent schools.

Australia boasts nearly 100 percent literacy, thanks to an emphasis on creative solutions for reaching children who live in remote areas. Various forms of communications, such as two-way radios and video or online classes, are used in order to teach these students in what are called Schools of the Air. Australia ranked tenth on the 2023-4 United Nations Human Development Index.

Some of the largest of Australia's more than forty public colleges and universities include Monash University (founded in 1958) in Melbourne, Victoria, with more than 70,000 students; the University of Sydney, established in 1850; and the University of Melbourne, founded in 1853. Schools with an emphasis on technology, such as Queensland University of Technology and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, also enjoy high enrollment.

Colleges receive substantial tax-funded assistance from the Australian government, although that funding has declined since the 1980s. During that period, many schools came to rely heavily on enrollments from Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries.

Health Care: Every Australian is eligible for state-funded health insurance. Average life expectancy for Australians is 83.5 years—85.7 years for women and 81.3 years for men (2024 estimate). The infant mortality rate is low, at 2.9 deaths per 1,000 live births (2024).

The government's Royal Flying Doctor Service provides health care in remote areas of Australia. It uses radio or telephone services to coordinate care, in concert with air ambulance services.

Food: Australia is not known for a distinctive cooking style, other than an emphasis on meat and seafood. However, traditional British-type meat-and-potatoes dishes, such as meat pies, are being supplanted by a more modern and international cuisine. Sometimes called "Mod Oz," contemporary Australian cooking borrows heavily from Asian styles and seasonings, such as stir-fry, to cook traditional Australian meats and vegetables.

Uniquely Australian foods include kangaroo, a red meat similar to venison; and barramundi, a prized sport fish that moves between fresh and salt water. It is typically barbecued and is very expensive due to its elusive nature.

Australian is known worldwide for its wine production, particularly its chardonnay (white) and shiraz (red) varieties.

Arts & Entertainment: Australians strongly promoted the arts throughout the twentieth century, aided by increased personal wealth and government subsidies for the arts, as administered by the Australia Council.

The crown jewel among the country's arts venues is the Sydney Opera House, first opened in 1973 after nearly twenty years of work on its design, funding, and construction. Its five halls host touring groups, in addition to serving as home to the Sydney Theatre Company, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and Opera Australia. The unique architecture of the Opera House, on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbor, features white granite tiles set into sail-shaped swooping shells, making it one of Australia's most recognized landmarks and a favorite tourist attraction.

Sydney's Australian Museum, opened in 1827, features natural history and anthropology exhibits, as does the Art Gallery of New South Wales, opened in 1874. Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria, opened in 1859, showcases the country's visual arts. Other museums include the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide, the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, and the Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth.

The late nineteenth-century Heidelberg School was Australia's first well-known group of painters, including Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin, and Sir Arthur Streeton. Other famous nineteenth-century Australian painters include Arthur Boyd, Sir William Dobell, George Russell Drysdale, Sidney Nolan, and Frederick Ronald Williams.

Aboriginal Australian arts have become increasingly popular in Australia. Aboriginal music is famous for its unique instruments, including a wooden tube-shaped horn called the didgeridoo. Popular music in Australia is dominated by Western styles.

Australians have been spectacularly successful in the American-dominated film industry. Famous Australian actors include Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe (born in New Zealand), Portia de Rossi, Errol Flynn, Hugh Jackman, and Geoffrey Rush. Mel Gibson and Nicole Kidman were raised in Australia.

Australians excel at sports such as tennis, cycling, rugby, golf, track and field, and auto racing. Famous tennis players include Lleyton Hewitt, Margaret Smith Court, Evonne Goolagong (of Aboriginal descent), Patrick Rafter, Rodney Laver, and John Newcombe. Famed golfer Greg Norman is joined by modern players Adam Scott, Mark Hensby, and Stuart Appleby. Cathy Freeman, an Australian runner of Aboriginal descent, won gold in the 400-meter event in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

Holidays: Official holidays observed in Australia include Australia (National) Day (January 26) and ANZAC Day (April 25), commemorating Australia's entry into and participation in World War I (1914–8). Christian holidays such as Easter and Christmas are also widely celebrated.

Festivals often coincide with holidays; the Montsalvat Jazz Festival is held in Eltham, Victoria, during the Australia Day weekend. The Mount Isa Rodeo takes place in August in Queensland. The Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne is held in November, and the three-day Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race begins on Boxing Day (December 26).

Environment and Geography

Topography: The continent of Australia is a low plateau at about 300 meters (1,000 feet) above sea level, broken by the higher Great Dividing Range running north to south along the heavily populated eastern coastal plain. The highest point of this range is Mount Kosciusko in New South Wales, at an elevation of 2,228 meters (7,310 feet).

Off the northeast coast is the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef at about 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) long. The entire Australian coastline stretches more than 25,500 kilometers (16,000 miles).

The centrally located Lake Eyre Basin is the country's lowest point, at 15 meters (50 feet) below sea level. Normally a dry salt lake, during exceptionally rainy years it becomes Australia's largest lake at 9,000 square kilometers (3,475 square miles).

From Lake Eyre, other dry lakes and deserts stretch to the western coastal plains, including nearby Simpson Desert (145,039 square kilometers/56,000 square miles), Tanami and Gibson Deserts (310,799 square kilometers/120,000 square miles) in central Australia, and the Great Sandy (388,498 square kilometers/150,000 square miles) and Great Victoria (647,497 square kilometers/250,000 square miles) Deserts to the west, the latter famed for its red sand dunes. About 40 percent of Australia is desert.

Near the town of Alice Springs, at the geographic center of the country, is Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, one of the best-known Australian landmarks. Believed to be the largest free-standing rock in the world, its red sandstone creates a striking image against its flat surroundings.

The Murray River is the longest river in Australia, running 1,930 kilometers (1,200 miles) from the Great Dividing Range to the southern coast at Spencer Gulf. The 1,867-kilometer (1,160-mile) long Darling River flows into the Murray at Wentworth. Both are major sources of irrigation.

Among Australia's numerous islands, the largest is Tasmania at 67,800 square kilometers (26,000 square miles). Lying 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of Victoria, it is nicknamed Apple Isle for its fruit harvest.

Natural Resources: Australia is the world's largest net coal exporter. Other abundant resources include bauxite, copper, tin, iron ore, gold, silver, uranium, nickel, tungsten, mineral sands, lead, and zinc. Oil and natural-gas reserves are limited. Gemstone deposits include diamonds, opals, topaz, and sapphires. Most of the country's mining takes place in Western Australia and Queensland.

Due in part to a reliance on fossil fuels for a significant share of its power generation, Australia has a high level of greenhouse-gas emissions. Deforestation has been slowed, however, helping to reduce some pollutants.

Plants & Animals:Eucalyptus trees from the southern coast and pine trees from the east coast are Australia's principal lumber cash crops. Less common trees include oak, ash, and cedar. Australia's floral emblem is the golden wattle, a small tree with large, fragrant, yellow spring flowers.

Nearly half of all Australian wildlife is endemic (found only in Australia). Its fifty species of marsupials include the koala, the kangaroo, and the Tasmanian devil, a doglike carnivore found only on its namesake island.

Australia's two distinctive monotremes (mammals that lay eggs) are the platypus, a small furry animal with webbed paws for swimming and a duck-like bill, and the echidna, which resembles a porcupine due to its coat of sharp spines. Baby echidnas are called puggles.

The emu is native to Australia. One of the world's largest birds, it grows up to two meters (six feet) tall. The thousands of species of fish in Australian waters include more than fifty shark species.

Climate: The north coast of Australia is about the same distance from the equator as Guatemala. Its tropical humid climate is wettest during the summer rainy season (January through March). Temperatures average about 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) in winter and 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer. Highs often exceed 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit).

Australia's east and west coastal areas receive about 100 centimeters (40 inches) of rainfall per year. The vast remainder of the country is very dry, with averages of less than 50 centimeters (20 inches) per year.

Southern coastal areas have a temperate climate, with a summer average temperature of about 20 degrees Celsius (67 degrees Fahrenheit) and a winter average of about 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit). Snow is unusual except at high elevations and on south-lying Tasmania.

Tropical cyclones affect the northeast and northwest coastal areas, most commonly Queensland and Western Australia. The southeast and southwest can experience dry winds from the interior that sometimes fan huge wildfires. One such blaze near Melbourne in 1983 destroyed about 3,700 buildings and killed seventy-six people. A 1994 inferno near Sydney destroyed 205 homes and killed four people.

Between July 2019 and March 2020, Australia experienced its worst wildfire season up to that point in history, with 46 million acres burned and nearly 3 billion animals affected by the fires, including 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds, and 51 million frogs, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature Australia, as reported by NBC News (28 July 2020).

Economy

Australia has a robust market economy. In 2023 the gross domestic product (GDP) in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) was estimated at US$1.584 trillion, and per capita GDP was estimated at US$59,500. Unemployment in 2023 was estimated at 3.67 percent.

In the early 2020s some of Australia's largest trading partners, in terms of imports and exports, included China, Japan, the United States, South Korea, Thailand, and India.

Industry: Australia's economy has a large service sector, which accounted for an estimated 64.2 percent of GDP in 2023 led by property and business services. Industry, including manufacturing, made up 27.4 percent of GDP at that time.

Commodities account for more than 50 percent of exports. Coal is the leading export by value, followed by iron ore, gold, meat, wool, and aluminum. Australia is among the world's top producers of gold and the largest volume producer of diamonds.

The mining industry during the 1970s and 1980s relied on Japanese investment and demand, particularly for iron ore. Expansion of China's economy starting in the 1990s again increased demand for raw materials.

Agriculture: While agriculture makes up a relatively small part of Australian GDP, Australia is a world leader in wool exports. Agricultural products include wheat, sugarcane, barley, milk, rapeseed, cotton, sorghum, beef, oats, chicken. Australian farms produce a large number of grapes, largely destined for the wine industry, generating approximately more than US$2 billion annually. Other important agricultural products include sugar, honey, cotton, and lamb.

Tourism: The 2000 Olympic Games, held in Sydney, boosted the direct contribution of travel and tourism to a peak of about 3.4 percent of GDP. Australia received 8.8 million international visitors from March 2019 to March 2020, at which point tourism largely stopped due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The sector began to recover by the end of 2021 and over 2 million tourists visited Australia in 2022, a 1200 percent increase over the previous year's number of tourists.

Many tourists stay at beachside resorts in Cairns in order to visit the Great Barrier Reef. Other resorts line much of the east coast. The central desert region, known as the Outback, is also popular with more adventurous tourists. Major cities such as Sydney and Melbourne also draw significant numbers of visitors, as well as business travelers and international students.

Government

Australia's six states are organized under a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral parliament. The British monarch's appointed governor-general serves as the symbolic head of state.

The prime minister is the leader of the majority elected party in the Parliament of Australia. The Senate is made up of twelve elected senators per state and two each from ACT and the Northern Territory, for a total of seventy-six. The House of Representatives contains about twice as many elected representatives as the Senate, according to the population of each state. Senators serve six-year terms. House members serve three-year terms. The prime minister selects Parliament members to form the cabinet, which includes ministers of defense, education, finance, and foreign affairs.

In 2023 Australian voters rejected a proposal, known as the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which would have established a permanent advisory body in Parliament comprised of elected Indigenous representatives from all of Australia's Indigenous people.

State governments are also generally bicameral parliamentary systems, while local governing falls to shire councils, borough councils, and city and town councils.

The High Court of Australia consists of a chief justice and six other justices who are appointed by ministers on the Federal Executive Council.

Interesting Facts

The Sydney Opera House is 186 meters (611 feet) long, 116 meters (380 feet) wide, and weighs 161,000 tons.

Famous Australian pop stars include Natalie Imbruglia, Kylie Minogue, and Olivia Newton-John (born in the United Kingdom). Hard-rock band AC/DC was formed in Sydney in 1973.

Australia, the driest inhabited continent in the world, also hosts 10 percent of the world's biodiversity.

The platypus and echidna, both native to Australia, are the only two mammal species in the world that lay eggs to give birth.

Bibliography

"Australia." The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 10 Oct. 2023, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/australia/. Accessed 13 Dec. 2024.

"Australian Government." Australia.gov.au, www.australia.gov.au. Accessed 13 Dec. 2024.

"Browse Statistics." Australian Bureau of Statistics, www.abs.gov.au/browse?opendocument&ref=topBar. Accessed 26 Oct. 2023.

Givetash, Linda. "Australian Wildfires Declared Among the 'Worse Wildlife Disasters in Modern History.'" NBC News, 28 July 2020, www.nbcnews.com/news/world/australian-wildfires-declared-among-worst-wildlife-disasters-modern-history-n1235071. Accessed 31 Aug. 2020.

Human Development Insights, United Nations Development Programme, Sept. 2022, hdr.undp.org/data-center/country-insights#/ranks. Accessed 13 Dec. 2024.

"A Year of COVID-19: The Impact on Tourism Jobs." Australian Bureau of Statistics, 18 June 2021, www.abs.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/year-covid-19-impact-tourism-jobs. Accessed 27 May 2022.

Visontay, Elias. "Australia Rejects Proposal to Recognise Aboriginal People in Constitution." The Guardian, 14 Oct. 2023, www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/14/australia-rejects-proposal-to-recognise-aboriginal-people-in-constitution. Accessed 26 Oct. 2023.