New South Wales 1,191 Queensland 577 | Victoria 727 Western Australia 450 | |
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Venezuelan Australians refers to Australian citizens of Venezuelan descent or birth. According to the 2011 Census there were 3,404 Venezuelan-born citizens who were residing in Australia at the moment of the census. There are an estimated 10,000 Australians of Venezuelan ancestry according to a study of Ivan De La Vega from Simón Bolívar University.
Contents
Almost 76% of Venezuelan Australians are concentrated in Eastern Australia.
History and cultural background
Small numbers of Venezuela-born have migrated to Australia since the 1960s, but the majority, about 72.9% of the population, arrived in Australia after 2001 as a part of the brain drain of the Bolivarian diaspora. Most came as skilled migrants, because of uncertainty of economic conditions in Venezuela.
Ancestry
According to the 2011 census, 42.1% of Venezuelans reported to have Venezuelan ancestry, 13.9% Venezuelans reported to have Spanish Venezuelan ancestry, 8.1% of Venezuelans reported to have Italo-Venezuelan ancestry, 3.4% of Venezuelans reported to have English Venezuelan ancestry and 32.4% of Venezuelans reported to have other ancestries.
Education and professions
83.7% of Venezuelan Australians over 15 years of age had a form of higher non-school qualifications. 57.6% had an occupation that was either being a skilled managerl, professional or in trade.
Language
The main language spoken at home by Venezuela-born people is Spanish in a 77.7% followed by English with 13.8%. With a difference to others Latin American Australian diasporas that speaks mainly Romance languages and English languages, an important percent of Venezuelan-born people main language spoken at home is Arabic in 2.6%. The remaining 6% speak others language at home (2% of them speak Italian).
Religion
Most Venezuelan Australians are Catholics (73%), irreligious (12.5%), Protestants (2.5%) and others (10.6%).