The Asian generation of Australia

There is a decline in the trend of Australians born of two Australian parents with a significant percentage born in Asia, says the 2016 census of Australia. According to the 2016 census, only 50.7% of the country's residents have two Australian-born parents, which is a step down from 54% in 2011 and 57% in 2006, reported The Sydney Morning Herald. Furthermore, 26.3% of the Australian population was noted to have been born overseas and, for the first time since British colonisation, most of the overseas-born are from Asia rather than Europe. As Asian immigrants were also found to be typically younger than European immigrants, this has helped slow down ageing of the overall population, with 15.8% aged 65 and above in 2016, and 4% aged 85 and above. The 2016 census shows that only 23.5% of the residents identified their ancestry as Australian, which was 29% in 2006. In addition, a record 2.8% of Australians identified themselves as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, which is higher as compared to 2.5% in 2011 and 2.3% in 2006. Although a census is conducted every five years since 1911, the indigenous Australians have been consistently included only since 1967. On the other hand, the census recorded 300 different languages, including Indigenous languages that are spoken across the country. While English still remains the Australia’s most used language, it was noted to becoming less common. As of 2016, Mandarin was spoken by 2.2% of Australians, Arabic by 1.4%, Vietnamese by 1.2%, and Cantonese by 1.2%. The Bureau of Statistics counted 23.4 million Australian residents on August 9, which was a 1.9 million higher than in 2011. However, adjusting the total for an estimated 1% undercount and about 600,000 Australians travelling overseas, it was believed that Australia's population was 24.4 million as of December 31, 2016.