Australian population and minorities
Its 20 million inhabitants cover an area almost equal to that of the USA and the average density is only 2 inhabitants per square kilometer. The population is distributed in a very heterogeneous way, concentrating along the south-eastern coast and in the extreme south of the western one. On the contrary in the interior. the immense outback, largely desert, meets only a few isolated centers. Equally depopulated are the regions of the far north, bordered by tropical forest.
Most of the Australian population is descended from 19th and 20th century immigrants, initially and mainly from the United Kingdom and Ireland but later also from other nations, especially Italy, Greece and Asian nations. The descendants of the original population, the Australian aborigines, make up about 2% of the population. Commonly in many other developed nations, Australia is currently witnessing an aging population, with more pensioners and fewer working-age people.
Over 92% of Australians are white: from the second post-war years onwards, descendants of British colonists were joined by immigrants from many European countries, especially Italy and Greece but also Spain and the Netherlands. More recently immigrants from Russia, Poland, the Balkans and other Eastern European countries have grown. The aborigines, the first inhabitants of Australia, represent only 2% of the population, the Asians 7%.
The Australian Aborigines:
The Australian aborigines came to the island about 50,000 years ago. The ability to adapt to the difficult environmental conditions allowed.
The culture of the place is therefore truly ancient and full of charm. An important fact is the enormous respect that this people has always had for nature, representing for it an important point of reference with which to live in perfect harmony. The distinctive feature is “being in symbiosis with Nature”. In traditional Aboriginal belief, landscape and nature are comparable, as importance, to the Bible in Christian culture. Protruding rocks, canyons, rivers, waterfalls, islands, beaches and all the other things that belong to nature, such as the sun, the moon, the stars and animals, are linked to stories of related creation. Thanks to this profound respect for nature, the aborigines have learned to live in exceptional harmony with the earth and its animals;
Now famous and known is the inventiveness of this people: the traditional Australian aborigines lived on nomadism, following the seasons and the food. With a few simple objects, used with incredible skill, the Aborigines have learned to live in the harsh and inhospitable Australian hinterland. It is even possible to hypothesize that the first Aborigines in Australia have hunted the so-called Australian megafauna: giant kangaroos, giant wombats, etc., to extinction.