During her 70-year reign, the world’s population grew by a staggering 5.5 billion, from about 2.5 billion in 1950 to about 8 billion today. Never before, and never again, will the human population increase at such a rate. Over the next 70 years, human population growth will slow sharply. By 2080, if not much sooner, a continued decline will begin. And while the median age of the world’s population fell in the early years of her reign, it has since risen from around 23 to over 31 today. It will continue to grow for the rest of this century. In many European nations, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea, the median age will approach 60, if not more. The rise in median age is the result of the global fertility rate falling from five births per woman at the time of the Queen’s coronation to around 2.3 births per woman today. Life expectancy has increased from about 45 in 1950 to nearly 73 today.
What about Australia?
After a period of very slow economic and population growth from 1930 to 1946, Australia was transformed by the time of the Queen’s coronation. The post-war baby boom and immigration program caused Australia’s population to grow by 2.4% per year during the 1950s and 2% per year during the 1960s – by far Australia’s highest population growth rates for any decade since federation . While our first immigration minister, Arthur Calwell, told Australians that the bulk of new immigrants would come from Britain, he knew that would not happen if his immigration goals were to be achieved. Ben Chifly was the first to break the dilemma of who would take in the displaced Jews after the war. This resulted in a wave of Jewish refugees to Australia, many from Poland, who would become leaders in Australian society. Bob Menzies would launch the Colombo Plan for students from many parts of Asia, and Immigration Minister Harold Holt would promote immigration from many other European nations. In the 1947 census, only 10% of our population of 7.6 million were born overseas, with around 80% of the overseas born being either from the UK or New Zealand. Only 10% of the foreign-born were from other European nations such as Germany, Italy and Greece. During the Queen’s reign, we transformed from an island backwater to a more dynamic and increasingly multicultural nation By the 1966 census, when we first started the abolition of the White Australia policy and my family emigrated, the proportion of the population of 11.5 million who were born overseas had risen to 18.5%. The UK and New Zealand share of the foreign-born had fallen to 45%. The “other European” portion of the foreign-born had risen to 52% with large increases in the Italian-born population (over 12% of the foreign-born). Greece (6.6%); the Netherlands (4.7%); the former Yugoslavia (3.6%) and Poland (2.9%). The Chinese-born population in 1966 was only 0.8% of the foreign-born, and the Indian-born was even less at 0.7%. The repeal of the White Australia Policy from 1966 – enacted into law by Gough Whitlam in the 1970s – made little immediate difference as overall immigration levels were significantly lower for most of the 1970s. While the population born in Vietnam and Lebanon increased from the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the Indian-born began to increase with larger immigration programs in the mid-1980s, these were all from small base. Subscribe to Guardian Australia’s Morning Mail Our Australian morning news email breaks down the key national and international stories of the day and why they matter Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The Chinese-born population began to grow until the start of the international education export industry from the mid-1980s and Bob Hawke’s decision to allow Chinese students in Australia at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre to remain in Australia. In 1988, John Howard argued that we should slow the pace of immigration from Asia – a proposal shot down by Hawke who led a parliamentary motion establishing non-discrimination in the permanent immigration program – Ian Macphee and Philip Ruddock crossed the floor for to vote with Hawke. Ironically, it was the Howard government in the early 2000s that dramatically expanded Australia’s international education industry with clear pathways to permanent immigration. This has seen our population grow to 25.4 million by 2021 with almost 30% of the population born abroad. While the UK remains the largest source of foreign-born at 16.4%, the proportion born in India (9.6%), China (7.8%), New Zealand (7.5%), the The Philippines (4.2%), Vietnam (3.6%) and South Africa (2.7%) have significantly outpaced overseas born nations such as Italy, Germany, Greece and the Netherlands. Weekend registration in Australia During the Queen’s reign, we have gone from an insular backwater to a more dynamic and increasingly multicultural nation. Due to immigration intake, Australia’s population is one of the few in the world projected to continue to grow, albeit very slowly, into 2100. Although we will get much older, we are also projected to remain one of the youngest in the developed world . This gives Australia significant advantages. But this cannot be taken for granted. As the entire world ages significantly and the populations of most nations decline sharply, competition for new skilled immigrants will intensify. Commitments on immigration policy emerging from the recent jobs summit will be critical. The Queen would not recognize the future demographic and immigration policies of the world. Abul Rizvi is a special adviser to Michelson Alexander and former deputy secretary of the immigration department
