Punjabi Australians

Last updated
Punjabi Australians
Total population
239,033 (2021) [1]
Regions with significant populations
Flag of Victoria (Australia).svg  Victoria 56,171 (2016) [2]
Flag of New South Wales.svg  New South Wales 33,435 (2016) [2]
Flag of Queensland.svg  Queensland 17,991 (2016) [2]
Flag of Western Australia.svg  Western Australia 12,223 (2016) [2]
Flag of South Australia.svg  South Australia 9,306 (2016) [2]
Flag of the Australian Capital Territory.svg  Australian Capital Territory 2,215 (2016) [2]
Flag of the Northern Territory.svg  Northern Territory 670 (2016) [2]
Flag of Tasmania.svg  Tasmania 489 (2016) [2]
Languages
Punjabi  · Hindi  · Urdu  · English
Religion
Sikhism  · Hinduism  · Islam
Related ethnic groups
Indian Australians  · Pakistani 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. [2] [3] This is an increase from 71,230 individuals in 2011 and 26,000 individuals in 2006, representing a five-fold growth in 10 years. [2]

Contents

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. [2] 55.6% of Punjabis are males and 44.4% are females, compared to the national average of 49.3% and 50.7% respectively. [4] 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. [4]

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%). [2]

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); [5] and another 0.9% (1,163 people) in Malaysia. [2] 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. [6] 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. [4] Over 90 percent of Punjabi-speakers reported that they spoke English "very well" or "well". [4]

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. [4] 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. [7] It was also the site of Australia's first gurdwara. [7]

Notable people

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punjab, Pakistan</span> Province of Pakistan

Punjab is a province of Pakistan. Located in central-eastern region of the country, Punjab is the second-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the largest province by population. It is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the north-west, Balochistan to the south-west and Sindh to the south, as well as Islamabad Capital Territory to the north-west and Azad Kashmir to the north. It shares an International border with the Indian states of Rajasthan and Punjab to the east and Indian-administered Kashmir to the north-east. Punjab is the most fertile province of the country as River Indus and its four major tributaries Ravi, Jhelum, Chenab and Sutlej flow through it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punjabi language</span> Indo-Aryan language native to the Punjab

Punjabi, sometimes spelled Panjabi, is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It has approximately 113 million native speakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sikhs</span> Adherents of the religion of Sikhism

Sikhs are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhi or Sikhism, a Dharmic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term Sikh has its origin in the Sanskrit word śiṣya (शिष्य), meaning 'disciple' or 'student'.

The Punjabis, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group associated with the Punjab region, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northwestern India. They generally speak Standard Punjabi or various Punjabi dialects on both sides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Asian Canadians</span> Ethnic group

South Asian Canadians are Canadians who were either born in or can trace their ancestry to the Indian subcontinent, which includes the nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the Maldives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gurdaspur district</span> Place in Punjab, India

Gurdaspur district is a district in the Majha region of the state of Punjab, India. Gurdaspur is the district headquarters. It internationally borders Narowal District of Pakistani Punjab, and the districts of Amritsar, Pathankot, Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur. Two main rivers Beas and Ravi passes through the district. The Mughal emperor Akbar is said to have been enthroned in a garden near Kalanaur, a historically important town in the district. The district is at the foothills of the Himalayas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoshiarpur district</span> District of Punjab in India

Hoshiarpur district is a district of Punjab state in northern India. Hoshiarpur, one of the oldest districts of Punjab, is located in the North-east part of the Punjab state and shares common boundaries with Gurdaspur district in the north-west, Jalandhar district and Kapurthala district in south-west, Kangra district and Una district of Himachal Pradesh in the north-east. Hoshiarpur district comprises 4 sub-divisions, 10 community development blocks, 9 urban local bodies and 1417 villages. The district has an area of 3365 km2. and a population of 1,586,625 persons as per census 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sikhism in India</span> Overview of the presence and role of Sikhism in India

Indian Sikhs number approximately 21 million people and account for 1.7% of India's population as of 2011, forming the country's fourth-largest religious group. The majority of the nation's Sikhs live in the northern state of Punjab, which is the only Sikh-majority administrative division in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woolgoolga, New South Wales</span> Town in New South Wales, Australia

Woolgoolga is a town on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia. It is on the Pacific Highway, approximately 550 km north of Sydney and 365 km south of Brisbane. The closest city to Woolgoolga is Coffs Harbour, which lies 25.8 km to the south. Woolgoolga has two beaches on the Pacific Ocean. The area has long been a centre of banana growing in New South Wales, but this industry has declined in the face of competition from Queensland. Recent times have seen many banana plantations replaced by blueberries after banana sales slumped in the late 1990s.

Pakistani Australians are Australians who are of Pakistani descent or heritage. Most Pakistani Australians are Muslims by religion, although there are also sizeable Christian, Hindu and other minorities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sikhism by country</span> World Sikh population breakdown

Most of the 25-30 million followers of Sikhism, the world's fifth-largest religion, live in the northern Indian state of Punjab, the only Sikh-majority administrative division on Earth, but Sikh communities exist on every inhabited continent. Sizeable Sikh populations in countries across the world exist in India (20,833,116), Canada (771,790), England (520,092), Italy (220,000), Australia (210,400), and the United States (~200,000), while countries with the largest proportions of Sikhs include Canada (2.12%), India (1.56%), Cyprus (1.1%) England (0.92%), New Zealand (0.87%), and Australia (0.83%).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sikhism in Australia</span>

Australian Sikhs number over 210,000 people and account for 0.8% of Australia's population as of 2021, forming the country's fastest-growing and fifth-largest religious group. The largest Sikh populations in Australia are found in Victoria, followed by New South Wales and Queensland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indo-Canadians</span> Community of Canadians of Indian descent or with Indian citizenship

Indian Canadians are Canadians who have ancestry from India. The terms Indo-Canadian or East Indian are sometimes used to avoid confusion with the Indigenous peoples of Canada. Categorically, Indian Canadians comprise a subgroup of South Asian Canadians which is a further subgroup of Asian Canadians. According to Statistics Canada, Indians are one of the fastest growing communities in Canada, making up the largest non-European ethnic group.

The Punjabi diaspora refers to the descendants of ethnic Punjabis who emigrated out of the Punjab region in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent to the rest of the world. Punjabis are one of the largest ethnic groups in both the Pakistani and Indian diasporas. The Punjabi diaspora numbers around the world has been given between 2.5 and 10 million, mainly concentrated in Britain, Canada, United States, Western Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.

Punjab is home to 2.3% of India's population; with a density of 551 persons per km2. According to the provisional results of the 2011 national census, Punjab has a population of 27,743,338, making it the 16th most populated state in India. Of which male and female are 14,639,465 and 13,103,873 respectively. 32% of Punjab's population consists of Dalits. In the state, the rate of population growth is 13.9% (2011), lower than national average. Out of total population, 37.5% people live in urban regions. The total figure of population living in urban areas is 10,399,146 of which 5,545,989 are males and while remaining 4,853,157 are females. The urban population in the last 10 years has increased by 37.5%. According to the 2011 Census of India, Punjab, India has a population of around 27.7 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punjabi Americans</span> Americans of Punjabi descent

Punjabi Americans, are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from the Punjab region of India and Pakistan. There are over 300,000 Punjabi Americans, many of whom were Sikhs from British Punjab who first settled in California's Central Valley to do agricultural work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pakistanis</span> Citizens and nationals of Pakistan

Pakistanis are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. According to the 2017 Pakistani census, the population of Pakistan stood at over 213 million people, making it the world's fifth-most populous country. The majority of Pakistanis natively speak languages belonging to the Indo-Iranic family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Punjabis</span> People of Punjabi origin living in the UK

British Punjabis are citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose heritage originates wholly or partly in the Punjab, a region in the Indian subcontinent, which is divided between India and Pakistan. Numbering 700,000 in 2006, Punjabis represent the largest ethnicity among British Asians. They are a major sub-group of the British-Indian and British Pakistani communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punjabi Christians</span> Ethnic Punjabis who are adherents of Christianity

Punjabi Christians are adherents of Christianity who identify linguistically, culturally, and genealogically as Punjabis. They are mainly found in the Pakistani province of Punjab, forming the largest religious minority. They are one of the four main ethnoreligious communities of the Punjab region with the others being Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus. Punjabi Christians are traditionally divided into various castes, and are largely descendants of Hindus who converted to Christianity during the British Raj in colonial India.

Punjabi New Zealanders are New Zealanders who are of Punjabi descent. Their ancestry originates wholly or partially in the Punjab region of South Asia, constituting a subgroup of Indian New Zealanders and Pakistani New Zealanders.

References

  1. "Snapshot of Australia: A picture of the economic, social and cultural make-up of Australia on Census Night, 10 August 2021". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 28 June 2022. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Singh, Manpreet K. (9 July 2017). "Find out more about the Punjabi speakers of Australia". SBS News. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  3. Kainth, Shamsher (11 August 2017). "Punjabi fastest growing language in Australia: Harinder Sidhu". SBS News. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Singh, Manpreet K. (4 September 2020). "Census 2016: Presenting a profile of the Punjabi community in Australia". SBS News. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  5. Nabi, Zain (27 June 2017). "Number of Australians born in Pakistan doubles". SBS News. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  6. Singh, Manpreet K. (6 December 2019). "Punjabi is the most spoken language among India-born Australians". SBS News. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  7. 1 2 Asri, Vivek (8 June 2017). "Woolgoolga, the story behind Australia's earliest Indian community". SBS News. Retrieved 10 August 2020.