Iraqi Australians

Iraqi Australians
Total population
57,859 (by ancestry, 2021)[1]
(0.2% of the Australian population)[1]
92,922 (by birth, 2021)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane
Languages
Mesopotamian Arabic and Australian English
also Kurdish (Sorani, Feyli and Kurmanji dialects), Turkish (Iraqi Turkmen/Turkoman dialects), and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, and Mandaic)
Religion
Catholicism (39.4%), Islam (25.4%), Others (10.8%) Assyrian Apostolic (8.7%), Other Christianity (5.7%)[2]
Related ethnic groups
Iraqi Americans, Assyrian Australians, Syrian Australians, Iraqi diaspora

Iraqi Australians (Arabic: أستراليون عراقيون) are Australian citizens who identify themselves to be Iraqi descent. Since the 1991 Gulf War, thousands of Iraqis have found refuge in Australia. The total of population is estimated to be as high as 95,000.[3] A Considerable part of Australia's Iraqi-born population doesn't claim Iraqi ancestry with most being Assyrian.

The first year in which the Australian Census of Population and Housing recorded the Iraq-born separately was 1976, when the population was 2,273. By 1986, the population had risen to 4,516. By the end of the Gulf War in 1991, it numbered 5,186, mainly in New South Wales and Victoria.

Many recent arrivals have entered Australia under the Humanitarian programme. The Gulf War and the quelling of uprisings of the Shi'a and the Kurds in Iraq resulted in a large increase in the number of Iraqis coming to Australia after 1991.

  1. ^ a b c Community profile 2021 abs.gov.au
  2. ^ "2021 People in Australia who were born in Iraq, Census Country of birth QuickStats | Australian Bureau of Statistics".
  3. ^ "Fear checks turnout for Iraq poll". 22 January 2005.