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Tamil Australians

{{Short description|Australians with a Tamil heritage}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}

{{Use Australian English|date=January 2018}}

{{Infobox ethnic group

|group = Tamil Australians

|native_name =

|native_name_lang =

|flag =

|flag_caption =

|image =

|image_caption =

|population = 150,000 (2023)

|genealogy =

|regions = State / Territory

|tablehdr =

|region1 = {{flag|New South Wales}}

|pop1 = 21,527

|ref1 =

|region2 = {{flag|Victoria}}

|pop2 = 17,452

|ref2 =

|region3 = {{flag|Western Australia}}

|pop3 = 4,078

|ref3 =

|region4 = {{flag|Queensland}}

|pop4 = 3,475

|ref4 =

|region5 = {{flag|South Australia}}

|pop5 = 1,703

|ref5 =

|region6 = {{flag|Australian Capital Territory}}

|pop6 = 1,416

|ref6 =

|region7 = {{flag|Northern Territory}}

|pop7 = 280

|ref7 =

|region8 = {{flag|Tasmania}}

|pop8 = 216

|ref8 =

|languages = {{Hlist|Tamil|English}}

|religions = {{Hlist|Hinduism|Christianity|Islam|Jainism}}

|related = {{Hlist|Sri Lankan Tamils|Indian Tamils|Tamil Malaysians|Singapore Tamils}}

|footnotes =

}}

{{Tamils}}

Tamil Australians refers to Australians with a Tamil background. It includes people who speak Tamil, those whose ancestors were Tamil or those who identify with Tamil culture. Most Tamil Australians are of Indian, Sri Lankan, Singaporean or Malaysian descent.{{cite web|title=2011 Census of Population and Housing|url=https://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/webapi/jsf/login.xhtml|work=Table Builder|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}

Demographics

File:Sydney murugan koyil.jpg

File:Perth sivan koyil.jpg]]

The Census 2021 has found 95,404 people speaking Tamil at home. The total number of ethnic Tamils could be around 150,000 people well above the census data considering the possibility of refugee statuses being getting considered as Migrants as per refugee policy reform.{{cn|date=March 2024}}

This is the first time Indian Tamils have taken over as the majority over the Sri Lankan Tamils in a foreign country other than the United States. There are no exact figures for the number of Tamil Australians but according to the 2011 census there were 50,151 Australians, 0.23% of the population, who spoke Tamil at home.{{cite web|title=Census Explorer|url=http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/tamil/censusexplorer|publisher=Special Broadcasting Service}} Tamil speaking Australians are of Indian, Sri Lankan, Singaporean and Malaysian ancestry.

The Census 2016 shows an increase of 50% in Tamil population who speak Tamil at home.

There were 73,161 Tamil speakers according to the 2016 Census, with the largest proportion of people across Australia in the suburb of Westmead (1,425 people, or 3.6% of people in that suburb), followed by Toongabbie (NSW) (1,404 people, or 3.5% of people in that suburb).{{cite web |url=http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/tamil/ta/article/2017/07/15/aastireeliyaavinnn-ent-suburb-il-tmilllrkll-atikmaak-vaalllkinnnrrnnnr?language=ta |title=ஆஸ்திரேலியாவின் எந்த suburb-இல் தமிழர்கள் அதிகமாக வாழ்கின்றனர்? {{!}} SBS Your Language |website=www.sbs.com.au |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809033308/http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/tamil/ta/article/2017/07/15/aastireeliyaavinnn-ent-suburb-il-tmilllrkll-atikmaak-vaalllkinnnrrnnnr?language=ta |archive-date=2017-08-09}}

class="wikitable" border="1" style="text-align:right;"

|+ Analysis of 2011 census by language and ancestry highlighting Tamil characteristics

style="vertical-align:bottom;" rowspan=2|Ancestry

! colspan=6|Language (first ancestry)

! colspan=6|Language (second ancestry)

style="vertical-align:bottom;"

! style="width:50px;"|Tamil

style="width:50px;"|Englishstyle="width:50px;"|Sinhalastyle="width:50px;"|Not
stated		style="width:50px;"|Otherstyle="width:50px;"|Totalstyle="width:50px;"|Tamilstyle="width:50px;"|Englishstyle="width:50px;"|Sinhalastyle="width:50px;"|Not
stated		style="width:50px;"|Otherstyle="width:50px;"|Total
align=left|Tamil11,4071,057855814912,756650257161348984
align=left|Indian Tamil406504315478211200−132
align=left|Sri Lankan Tamil4,15370210227415,0256283608159
style="font-weight:bold"

| align=left|Sub-total Tamil

15,9661,8091918820518,2597333522213551,175
align=left|Indian20,92377,033643,204249,641350,86554031,992382177,24640,033
align=left|Sri Lankan8,53423,79227,8624421,55162,18130011,5416794738912,956
align=left|Australian7484,777,28368424,942118,2754,921,932822,135,198506,45834,7612,176,549
align=left|Sinhalese9422,35116,89811522520,531769011,37213542,416
align=left|English8627,062,12080933,676125,9907,223,457713,13681071,82115,079
align=left|Malay5026,9731713413,23020,856919,01532563,56812,762
align=left|Singaporean1781,93001231,3023,533252,0830134982,619
align=left|Not stated856391,451913979,843102,1671,475,23047,98410,434,94145,7101,060,7593,465,64515,055,039
align=left|Other6404,164,54975442,9243,202,0087,410,8753133,870,13228117,808300,5574,189,091
style="font-weight:bold"

| align=left|Total

50,15116,509,29148,1921,085,4913,814,59421,507,71950,15116,509,29148,1921,085,4913,814,59421,507,719

As per the 2011 census, over 39.59% of Tamil speaking Australians were born in Sri Lanka, 34.89% in India and 13.05% in Australia.

class="wikitable" border="1" style="text-align:right;"
CountryPopulation%
align=left|Sri Lanka19,85539.59%
align=left|India17,50034.89%
align=left|Australia6,54713.05%
align=left|Malaysia2,7825.55%
align=left|Singapore1,6873.36%
align=left|Not stated4450.89%
align=left|Other1,3352.66%
style="font-weight:bold"

| align=left|Total

50,151100.00%

They live concentrated in Wentworthville, Pendle Hill, Girraween, Toongabbie and Strathfield in Sydney and in Glen Waverley and Dandenong North in Melbourne.

class="wikitable sortable" border="1" style="text-align:right;"
style="vertical-align:bottom;"|State
suburb

! style="vertical-align:bottom;"|State

! style="vertical-align:bottom;"|Tamils

! style="vertical-align:bottom;"|% of
suburb

! style="vertical-align:bottom;"|% of
Tamils

align=left|Wentworthville{{cite web|title=Wentworthville Code SSC12459 (SSC)|url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/SSC12459?opendocument&navpos=220|work=Quick Stats|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}align=left|NSW1,07310.13%2.14%
align=left|Glen Waverley{{cite web|title=Glen Waverley Code SSC20535 (SSC)|url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/SSC20535?opendocument&navpos=220|work=Quick Stats|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}align=left|VIC9452.41%1.88%
align=left|Dandenong{{cite web|title=Dandenong Code SSC20366 (SSC)|url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/SSC20366?opendocument&navpos=220|work=Quick Stats|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}align=left|VIC9353.75%1.86%
align=left|Westmead{{cite web|title=Westmead Code SSC12484 (SSC)|url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/SSC12484?opendocument&navpos=220|work=Quick Stats|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}align=left|NSW9086.41%1.81%
align=left|Toongabbie{{cite web|title=Toongabbie (NSW) Code SSC12293 (SSC)|url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/SSC12293?opendocument&navpos=220|work=Quick Stats|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}align=left|NSW8536.56%1.70%
align=left|Pendle Hill{{cite web|title=Pendle Hill Code SSC11859 (SSC)|url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/SSC11859?opendocument&navpos=220|work=Quick Stats|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}align=left|NSW84912.74%1.69%
align=left|Strathfield{{cite web|title=Strathfield (NSW) Code SSC12164 (SSC)|url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/SSC12164?opendocument&navpos=220|work=Quick Stats|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}align=left|NSW8153.45%1.63%
align=left|Girraween{{cite web|title=Girraween (NSW) Code SSC10950 (SSC)|url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/SSC10950?opendocument&navpos=220|work=Quick Stats|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}align=left|NSW129020.6%1.52%
align=left|Auburn{{cite web|title=Auburn (NSW) Code SSC10070 (SSC)|url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/SSC10070?opendocument&navpos=220|work=Quick Stats|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}align=left|NSW6591.99%1.31%
align=left|Lidcombe{{cite web|title=Lidcombe Code SSC11363 (SSC)|url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/SSC11363?opendocument&navpos=220|work=Quick Stats|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}align=left|NSW6583.95%1.31%
align=left|Seven Hills{{cite web|title=Seven Hills (NSW) Code SSC12064 (SSC)|url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/SSC12064?opendocument&navpos=220|work=Quick Stats|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}align=left|NSW6503.45%1.30%
align=left|Homebush{{cite web|title=Homebush (NSW) Code SSC11125 (SSC)|url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/SSC11125?opendocument&navpos=220|work=Quick Stats|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}align=left|NSW5889.49%1.17%
align=left|Dandenong North{{cite web|title=Dandenong North Code SSC20367 (SSC)|url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/SSC20367?opendocument&navpos=220|work=Quick Stats|publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}align=left|VIC5312.42%1.06%

More than 80% have completed high school education; the rate is only 50% for the general Australian population. More than 59% own their houses, compared with more than 67% of the general population.

Tamil Australians

References

{{Reflist|2}}

External links

{{Portal|Australia|Tamils}}

  • [http://www.tamilaustralian.com/ Tamil Australian Media]
  • [http://www.australiatamil.org.au/ Australia Tamil Association]
  • [http://www.australiantamilcongress.com/ Australian Tamil Congress]
  • [https://www.australiatamil.org.au/Matrimonial.html Australia Tamil Matrimonial Services]
  • [http://www.chennaistore.com/ Tamilians Traditional Sarees]

{{Tamil Diaspora}}

{{Sri Lankan Tamil people}}

{{Asian Australians}}

{{Ethnic groups in Australia}}

Category:Australian people of Indian descent

Australia