Australia becoming more Asian: census

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2007

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australians are becoming more Asian and less Christian according to the results of the latest Census released Wednesday.

The population, predicted to hit 21 million by the end of the week, is also older and richer than it was on average a decade ago.

While Australians are still overwhelmingly English-speaking and Christian, the five-yearly Census found that recent migration from Asia had wrought significant changes on the nation's identity.

Although the proportion of people born overseas remained unchanged at 22 percent, more migrants were coming to live Down Under from China and India, and fewer from Italy and Greece.

"Of the 1.2 million Australian residents born in Asia, 27 percent were recent arrivals," the Australian Bureau of...