Punjabi Australians

Punjabi Australians are Australians who are of Punjabi descent. According to the 2016 census, Punjabi is one of the fastest-growing languages in Australia, with 132,499 individuals identifying as Punjabi-speakers.[1][2] This is an increase from 71,230 individuals in 2011 and 26,000 individuals in 2006, representing a five-fold growth in 10 years.[1]

Punjabi Australians
Total population
132,499 (2016)[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Victoria56,171 (2016)[1]
 New South Wales33,435) (2016)[1]
 Queensland17,991 (2016)[1]
 Western Australia12,223 (2016)[1]
 South Australia9,306 (2016)[1]
 Australian Capital Territory2,215 (2016)[1]
 Northern Territory670 (2016)[1]
 Tasmania489 (2016)[1]
Languages
Punjabi · English
Religion
Sikhism · Hinduism · Islam
Related ethnic groups
Indian Australians · Pakistani Australians

Demographics

When ordered state-wise, the largest population of Punjabis is in Victoria (56,171 individuals), followed by New South Wales (33,435), Queensland (17,991), Western Australia (12,223), South Australia (9,306), the Australian Capital Territory (2,215), the Northern Territory (670) and Tasmania (489). Over 40 percent of Punjabi Australians are between the age bracket of 25 to 34 years.[1] 55.6% of Punjabis are males and 44.4% are females, compared to the national average of 49.3% and 50.7% respectively.[3] Most Punjabi-speakers earned a weekly income of $800 to $999. 8.9% of Punjabi men stated they did not earn an income, compared to 30.3% of women.[3]

According to the 2016 census, out of the people who identified as Punjabi-speakers, the vast majority declared themselves as Sikhs (108,276 people, comprising 82.9%), followed by Hindus (16,546 people, comprising 12.7%) and Muslims (1,495 people, comprising 1.1%), while 2,214 individuals declared no religion (1.7%).[1]

78.1% (102,661 people) of Punjabi-speakers listed India as their country of birth, followed by 17.3% (22,808 people) in Australia; 0.9% (1,192 people) in Pakistan (separately, Pakistani Australians had a population of 61,913 in the 2016 census);[4] and another 0.9% (1,163 people) in Malaysia.[1] Punjabi was the most commonly spoken mother tongue amongst Indian Australians, with 22 percent of all Indian-born Australians stating they spoke Punjabi at home; it was followed by Hindi, Malayalam and Gujarati.[5] Punjabi is also amongst the top ten most spoken languages of Australia, and the seventh most common language in Melbourne, where it is spoken by 1.2% of the city's population.[3] Over 90 percent of Punjabi-speakers reported that they spoke English "very well" or "well".[3]

The suburb of Craigieburn in Victoria had one of the largest proportion of Punjabis, where 3,937 people or 9.8% of people identified as Punjabi, followed by Blacktown in New South Wales, where 3,243 people or 8.1% of people were Punjabis.[3] The farming town of Woolgoolga in upper New South Wales is home to one of the earliest and largest Punjabi Sikh populations in regional Australia, dating back to the start of the 20th century.[6] It was also the site of Australia's first gurdwara.[6]

See also

References
  1. Singh, Manpreet K. (9 July 2017). "Find out more about the Punjabi speakers of Australia". SBS News. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  2. Kainth, Shamsher (11 August 2017). "Punjabi fastest growing language in Australia: Harinder Sidhu". SBS News. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  3. Singh, Manpreet K. (4 September 2020). "Census 2016: Presenting a profile of the Punjabi community in Australia". SBS News. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  4. Nabi, Zain (27 June 2017). "Number of Australians born in Pakistan doubles". SBS News. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  5. Singh, Manpreet K. (6 December 2019). "Punjabi is the most spoken language among India-born Australians". SBS News. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  6. Asri, Vivek (8 June 2017). "Woolgoolga, the story behind Australia's earliest Indian community". SBS News. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
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