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Population
For historic, climatic and economic reasons Australia is highly urbanised, its population of a little more than 21 million is concentrated in the capital cities and a handful of major cities mainly on the south and east coasts of the continent. Approximately 62% of the population live in the 6 State capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart. Sydney and Melbourne are the 2 major cities. There are also the cities of Darwin in the Northern Territory, Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory and 8 other major population centres of 100,000 or more people.
Because of traditionally high immigration rates, particularly since 1945, more than 23% of the population was born overseas with a wide range of birthplaces. There has been an increasing diversification of the population over time. In 1947, 81% of the overseas-born population came from the major English-speaking countries (the United Kingdom and Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and the United States) but mainly from the United Kingdom and Ireland. In the second half of the 20th century, sources of migration shifted from Britain to Europe (especially Italy, Greece, and Malta) and, from the mid-70s, to Asia, the Middle East and western Africa. By June 1999, only 39% of the overseas-born population had been born in the main English-speaking countries, there being an increasing representation of Asian-born immigrants in Australia.