Australia is the world's smallest continent, its sixth-largest country or put another way; Australia's land mass is approximately 7,692,030 km², 32 times larger than the United Kingdom.

Population

According to the latest estimates its multicultural population has just surpassed the 20 million mark with the bulk of inhabitants located in major cities along the Eastern and Southeastern coasts - or put another way; approximately 85% of Australians occupy only 1% of this vast territory.

Just over 6.2 million people live in New South Wales (NSW), the country's most populous state and approximately 4 million live in Sydney, Australia's largest city.

Sydney is followed in size by Melbourne with over 3.3 million people and Brisbane with 1.5 million people. Canberra, the nation's Capital, is relatively small; its population 307,000.

The country's Aboriginal population hovers around the 400,000 mark.

More than 76% of Australians were born in the country. Immigrants originate from all over the globe with the most commonly declared foreign countries of birth being the UK (5.8% of the population) and New Zealand (2% of the population).

Religion

The number of Australians stating a religious affiliation is steadily declining. Over 70% of the population identifies themselves as Christian. Of the Christian affiliations approximately 27% of respondents are Catholic, 20% Anglican and another 20% claiming another Christian denomination.

Language

The official language of Australia is English with the term Strine coined to describe Australian slang.