Introduction

Country Profile

This section shall enumerate the various facts regarding the culture, population, ethnicity,

political climate, trade etc., and will also provide a general description of the business

environment in Australia.

Language: Australia is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse countries in world.

The Australian population predominantly speaks the English language, where a total of

about 77% of the people speak the language. Although, other languages are also spoken in

the country such as Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi, Greek etc., owing to the vast diversity of the

nation. The figure below depicts the percentage of the top ten languages spoken in

Australia, other than English.

 Figure 1: Percentage of top 10 languages spoken in Australia apart from English
(Ethnolink, 2022)

Population and Ethnicity: Australia has a population of about 25.7 million people, although,

the country has a multicultural population with its population consisting of people from

many diverse nationalities. Due to the country’s inviting immigration policy, people from

many nationalities have made Australia their choice of home. The following table shows the

bifurcation of all the predominant nationalities who were born in their home country and

chose to settle in Australia (ABS, 2022).

Country Census Population Count

England 927,490

India 673,352

China (excluding Taiwan) 549,618

 New Zealand 530,492

Philippines 293,892

Table 1: Census population count in Australia (ABS, 2022)

Religion: Christianity has been the predominant religion practised by Australians for many

decades. Although, over the past 50 years, there has been a steady decline in the proportion

of Australians who reported an affiliation with Christianity. The same period has seen a

consistent rise in other religions and no religion, particularly in the last 20 years. The

following chart illustrates the most practised religions in Australia (ABS, 2022a)

Australia's religion profile

50.00%
45.00% 43.90%
40.00% 38.90%
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00% 3.20% 2.70% 2.40%
0.00%
Christianity No religion Islam Hinduism Buddhism

Figure 2: Australia’s religion profile (ABS, 2022a)

Trade: International trade is an integral part of the Australian economy and especially to the

shipping and logistics industry.  Australia exploits the benefits of many free trade

agreements with other countries while the import and export of several goods ranging from

machinery and minerals to meat and aluminium. The table below throws light upon the top

10 Imports and Exports by and from Australia and their total value (ICE, 2020)
 Imports Value (AUD $) Exports Value

Machinery 46.2 billion Mineral fuels 127.1 billion

Mineral Fuels 43.9 billion Ores, slag and ash 86.3 billion
Vehicles 43.6 billion Gems and precious 23.2 billion
metals
Electrical machinery 37.1 billion Meat 14.7 billion
and equipment
Medical/technical 12 billion Inorganic chemicals 11.9 billion
equipment
Pharmaceuticals 11.8 billion Cereals 7.1 billion
Gems and precious 9.5 billion Machinery 6.9 billion
metals
Plastics 9.2 billion Aluminium 5.5 billion
Iron and Steel 7.2 billion Electrical machinery 4.6 billion
Furniture, bedding 6.9 billion Optical and medical 4.6 billion
and lighting equipment
Table 2: Australia’s top ten Imports and exports (ICE, 2020)

Political climate: Australia is one of the wealthiest Asia–Pacific nations and has doubled its

economic expansion in the last two decades. Australia’s political environment is stable and

supports transparent and well-established political processes, competent governance, a

strong legal system, and an independent bureaucracy. The judicial system operates

independently and impartially. The government enforces laws against bribery and

corruption effectively. The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in

Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left

Australian Labor Party (Heritage, 2022).

Unemployment rate: The unemployment rate in Australia decreased to 3.5% in 2022 with

the unemployed population decreasing by 54,300 to 493,900. Additionally, the youth

unemployment rate decreased to 7.9% year-on-year (ABS, 2022b).

References

ABS (2022). Cultural diversity Census. Available from:

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/cultural-diversity-

census/latest-release

ABS (2022a). Religion affiliation in Australia. Available from:

https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/religious-affiliation-australia

ABS (2022b). Labour force, Australia. Available from:

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-

australia/latest-release#:~:text=in%20June%202022%3A-,unemployment%20rate

%20decreased%20to%203.5%25.,225%2C500%20lower%20than%20March%202020.

Ethnolink (2022). Top 10 languages spoken in Australia. Available from:

https://www.ethnolink.com.au/blog/top-10-languages-spoken-in-australia/

Heritage (2022). Australia. Available from:

https://www.heritage.org/index/country/australia#:~:text=Australia's%20stable%20political
%20environment%20supports,against%20bribery%20and%20corruption%20effectively.