The latest Census in 2001 recorded 142,720 China-born persons in Australia, an increase of 29 per cent from the 1996 Census. The 2001 distribution by State and Territory showed New South Wales had the largest number with 85,450 followed by Victoria (36,760), Queensland (8,860) and Western Australia (5,220).

Age and sex

The median age of the China-born in 2001 was 40.9 years compared with 46.0 years for all overseas-born and 35.6 years for the total Australian population. The age distribution showed 5.6 per cent were aged 0-14 years, 12.3 per cent were 15-24 years, 42.5 per cent were 25-44 years, 24.6 per cent were 45-64 years and 14.9 per cent were 65 and over.

Of the China-born in Australia, there were 66,540 males (46.6 per cent) and 76,180 females (53.4 per cent). The sex ratio was 87.3 males per 100 females.

Qualifications

In 2001, of China-born people aged 15 years and over, 47.1 per cent held some form of educational or occupational qualification compared with 46.2 per cent for all Australians. Among the China-born, 33.7 per cent had higher qualifications* and 5.3 per cent had Certificate level qualifications. Of the China-born with no qualifications, 25.1 per cent were still attending an educational institution.

* Higher qualification includes Postgraduate Degree, Graduate Diploma & Graduate Certificate and Bachelor Degree Advanced Diploma & Diploma Level.

Employment

Among China-born people aged 15 years and over, the participation rate in the labour force was 53.0 per cent and the unemployment rate was 10.2 per cent. The corresponding rates in the total Australian population were 63.0 and 7.4 per cent respectively.

Of the 63,360 China-born who were employed, 55.2 per cent were employed in a Skilled occupation, 24.6 per cent in Semi-Skilled and 20.3 per cent in Unskilled. The corresponding rates in the total Australian population were 52.6, 28.9 and 18.6 per cent respectively.

Citizenship

At the 2001 Census, the rate* of Australian Citizenship for the China-born in Australia was 82.6 per cent. The rate for all overseas-born was 75.1 per cent.

* Includes adjustments for people not meeting the residential requirement for citizenship, temporary entrants to Australia and underenumeration at the Census.

Language

The main languages spoken at home by China-born people in Australia were Chinese-Mandarin (48.0 per cent), Chinese-Cantonese (36.8 per cent), and Chinese-Other (Incl Chinese Nfd) (6.8 per cent).

Of the 136,220 China-born who spoke a language other than English at home, 58.6 per cent spoke English very well or well and 40.4 per cent spoke English not well or not at all.

Religion

At the 2001 Census the major religions amongst China-born were Buddhism (27,740 persons), Western Catholic (6,620 persons) and Baptist (3,880 persons).

Of the China-born, 49.1 per cent stated 'No Religion'. This was higher than that of the total Australian population (15.5 per cent)

Ancestry

In the 2001 Census, the top three ancestries that China-born persons reported were, Chinese (132,030), Russian (4,200) and English (560).