Demographics of Sydney

{{See also|History of Sydney}}

File:GreatSynagogue2.JPG of Sydney, constructed in 1878]]

European settlement in Sydney began in 1788, and in 1800 Sydney had around 3,000 non-indigenous inhabitants. It took time for the city's population to grow–in 1851 its population was only 39,000, compared with 77,000 in Melbourne. The subsequent gold rushes in Victoria caused the population of Melbourne to increase rapidly, while the lesser gold rushes in New South Wales had a less profound effect on the population of Sydney.

Sydney overtook Melbourne as Australia's most populous city in the early twentieth century, and reached the million inhabitants milestone around 1925. The opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932 helped pave the way for further urban development north of Sydney Harbour. Post-war immigration and a baby boom helped the population reach 2 million by 1962. Sydney remained Australia's most populous city throughout the 20th century, and is projected to retain this position until between 2032 and 2046.{{cite web|url=http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3222.0|title=3222.0 – Population Projections, Australia, 2006 to 2101|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics|date=4 September 2008|accessdate=21 November 2011}}

At the August 2021 Australian census, Sydney's population reached 5 million people.

File:Sydney density.jpg

Sydney is particularly noted for its low population density, due to its history. Surrounded by land that was considered unowned by the city's founders, early Sydney enjoyed relatively low land values. Coupled with successive governments' willingness to release new land on the city's outskirts for further development, this history has given Sydney a low-density self-image.{{cite book |last=Forster |first=Clive A |title=Australian cities: continuity and change |year=1995 |url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/45630322 |publication-date=1995 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-553565-5}}[http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/32eb1b908521ad75ca2571220079feee!OpenDocument#M 1217.0.55.001 - Glossary of Statistical Geography Terminology, 2003], Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2003

Most immigrants to Sydney between 1840 and 1930 were British, Irish or Chinese. At the 2021 census, the most commonly nominated ancestries were:{{refn|group="N"|As a percentage of 4,920,815 persons who nominated their ancestry at the 2021 census.}}{{Cite web| url=https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/community-profiles/2021/1GSYD| title=2021 Greater Sydney, Census Community Profiles | Australian Bureau of Statistics}}

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• English (21.8%)
• Australian (20.4%){{refn|group="N"|The Australian Bureau of Statistics has stated that most who nominate "Australian" as their ancestry are part of the Anglo-Celtic group.{{cite web|url=http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/94713ad445ff1425ca25682000192af2/49f609c83cf34d69ca2569de0025c182!OpenDocument|title=Feature Article - Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Australia (Feature Article)|first=c=AU; o=Commonwealth of Australia; ou=Australian Bureau of|last=Statistics|website=www.abs.gov.au|date=January 1995}}}}
• Chinese (11.6%)
• Irish (7.2%)
• Scottish (5.6%)
• Indian (4.9%)
• Italian (4.3%)
• Lebanese (3.5%)
• Filipino (2.7%)
• Greek (2.6%)
• Vietnamese (2.5%)
• German (2.2%)
• Korean (1.4%)
• Nepalese (1.4%)
• Australian Aboriginal (1.4%){{refn|Indigenous identification is separate to the ancestry question on the Australian Census and persons identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander may identify any ancestry.}}
• Maltese (1.1%)

}}

At the 2021 census, there were 2,260,410 people living in Sydney that were born overseas, accounting for 43.2% of the population of Sydney, above Vancouver (42.5%), Los Angeles (37.7%), New York City (37.5%), Chicago (20.7%), Paris (14.6%) and Berlin (13%). Only 31.0% of the population had both parents born in Australia. Sydney has the eighth-largest immigrant population among world metropolitan areas. Foreign countries of birth with the greatest representation are Mainland China, India, England, Vietnam and the Philippines.

42.0% of people in Sydney speak a language other than English at home with Mandarin (5.0%), Arabic (4.2%), Cantonese (2.8%), Vietnamese (2.2%) and Hindi (1.5%) the most widely spoken.

1.7% of the population, or 90,939 people, identified as Indigenous Australians (Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders) in 2021.{{refn|group="N"|Of any ancestry. Includes those identifying as Aboriginal Australians or Torres Strait Islanders. Indigenous identification is separate to the ancestry question on the Australian Census and persons identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander may identify any ancestry.}}

Sydney has been a hub of a number of migrant communities, such as the Lebanese, Fijian, Korean and Nepalese.{{cite web|url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/communityprofile/1GSYD?opendocument|title=2016 Census Community Profiles - Greater Sydney|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics|accessdate=18 March 2018|archive-date=18 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180318120821/http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/communityprofile/1GSYD?opendocument|url-status=dead}} Well over half of Australia's 25,000-strong Nepalese community,{{cite web|title=People in Australia who were born in Nepal|url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/7105_0|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics|access-date=7 September 2018|archive-date=12 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012095823/http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/7105_0|url-status=dead}} for example, is concentrated in Sydney.{{cite web|title=People in Greater Sydney who were born in Nepal|url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/7105_1GSYD|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics|access-date=7 September 2018|archive-date=12 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012100015/http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/7105_1GSYD|url-status=dead}} Seven out of every ten Lebanese migrants in Australia live in Sydney. The Ghanaian community has been noted as being quite visible in Sydney, with the number of Ghanaian churches being unusually large considering the relatively small number of Ghanaians in Australia.{{cite web|title=Patriotic to a fault|url=http://www.abc.net.au/sport/stories/2009/12/18/2776333.htm|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation}} Furthermore, the suburb of Fairfield in the Greater Western Sydney area, is an ethnic enclave of Assyrian Christians,{{Census 2016 AUS|id=SSC11477|name=Fairfield (State Suburb)|accessdate=27 June 2017|quick=on}} where they are the largest ethnic group in the suburb and also in the surrounding areas of Fairfield Heights, Prairiewood and Greenfield Park.B. Furze, P. Savy, R. Brym, J. Lie, Sociology in Today's World, 2008, p. 349 There is a Romani community in Sydney.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wgoFxfSTfYAC&q=roma+gypsies+sydney&pg=PA635|title = The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins|isbn = 9780521807890|last1 = Jupp|first1 = James|date = October 2001| publisher=Cambridge University Press }}

As of the 2021 Census, the most common responses for religion in Greater Sydney were Christian (45.8%), Islam (6.3%), Hinduism (4.8%), and Buddhism (3.8%). Among those who identified as Christian, the most common denominations were Catholic (22.1%) and Anglican (9.2%), with 2.5% of responders answering 'Christian: Not further defined'.{{Cite web |title=Greater Sydney - Religion {{!}} Australia |url=https://profile.id.com.au/australia/religion?WebID=260 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412051324/https://profile.id.com.au/australia/religion?WebID=260 |archive-date=2023-04-12 |access-date=2023-09-17 |website=id.com.au}}

The proportion of people who were not religious or had secular beliefs was 30.5%, up from 24.9% five years prior.

{{Commons category|Demographic maps of Sydney}}

• Demographics of Australia
• Immigration to Australia
• List of population demographics of New South Wales by local government area

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Category:Sydney

Sydney

Sydney