People of European descent make up 95.1 % of Australia’s inhabitants. The majority have a British or Irish heritage, but about 18.5 % of the total population have other European origins. Asians, including Middle Easterners, account for 4 % of the population. Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders make up 1 % of the population. In 1991 the largest overseas-born groups were from Great Britain and Ireland 23 %, other European countries 29 %, and Asia and the Middle East 20.5 %. Before World War II more than 90 % of the people were of British or Irish origin. Since then, more than 2 million Europeans from other countries have migrated to Australia. Since 1975, about 125,100 Southeast Asians have been admitted to the nation, most as refugees.

population growth was often adopted as an index of economic success and environmental adaptation, and the proximity of Asia's crowded millions deepened national insecurities. One of the first objectives of the new federal government, accomplished in 1901, was the design of a White Australia policy to avoid diluting the Anglo-Celtic heritage. On its own, the policy was unproductive as well as discriminatory, but it was made more attractive by the blending of imperial and nationalistic sentiments that proclaimed “population capacities” of between 100 and 500 million in Australia's “large empty spaces.” In the interwar time the Australian geographer Griffith Taylor argued that there were stringent environmental limits that would restrict Australia's population to 19 to 20 million persons at the end of the 20th century.

Australia's refugee admissions of about 12,000 per year are in addition to the normal immigration program. In recent years, refugees from the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia have comprised the largest-single element in Australia's refugee program. Although Australia has scarcely more than two persons per square kilometer, it is one of the world's most urbanized countries. Less than 14% of the population lives in rural areas.