Economy

Imports
$292 billion (2022).  Refined Petroleum ($37.7B), Cars ($20.8B), Delivery Trucks ($8.59B), Broadcasting Equipment ($7.46B), and Computers ($7.03B), importing mostly from China ($81.2B), United States ($29.7B), South Korea ($18.7B), Japan ($16.7B), and Singapore ($14.7B).
In 2022, Australia was the world’s biggest importer of Sodium or Potassium Peroxides ($1.39B).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 100% have an account with a financial institution
• 59.7% have a credit card
• 76% make online purchases

Ease of doing business
It is very easy to conduct business (rated 81.2 out of 100) ranked 14th out of 34 OECD and high income countries, ranked 24th out of 190 countries worldwide (2023, World Bank).

Exports
$424 billion (2022).  Coal Briquettes ($109B), Iron Ore ($87.9B), Petroleum Gas ($67.3B), Gold ($17.8B), and Wheat ($10.2B), exporting mostly to China ($123B), Japan($80.1B), South Korea ($41B), India ($31.5B), and Chinese Taipei ($24.1B).
In 2022, Australia was the world’s biggest exporter of Coal Briquettes ($109B), Iron Ore ($87.9B), Wheat ($10.2B), Other Mineral ($8.27B), and Aluminium Oxide ($6.29B).

Main local online stores
eBay, David Jones, Marks & Spencer, catch, Amazon Australia, Target.

Economic freedom
‘Free’ (76.2 out of 100) ranked 4th out of 39 Asia-Pacific countries ranked 13th out of 186 countries worldwide (2019, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 6th out of 39 South-East, East Asia and Oceanian countries, 24th out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Source: OEC

Source: OEC

Media

Media language
English

Information channels
Australia’s media scene is creatively, technologically and economically advanced. There is a tradition of public broadcasting, but privately-owned TV and radio have the biggest audiences.
The ownership of print and broadcast media is concentrated. Leading conglomerates include News Corp Australia, Seven West Media and the merged Fairfax Media-Nine Entertainment group.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) runs national and local public radio and TV. 
The other main public broadcaster is the multilingual Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).
National commercial TV is dominated by three big free-to-air networks. Broadcasters must carry a minimum percentage of Australian-made programmes. Pay TV via cable, satellite and IPTV have a strong foothold.
Sports, news, game shows, imported and home-made dramas top the TV ratings. 
The industry has successfully exported its productions to English-speaking markets overseas.
Media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders says tough defamation legislation, anti-terrorism laws and national security have reduced the space for “demanding investigative journalism”.

News agency

AAP – Australian Associated Press
ABC News – public broadcaster’s news site
news.com.au – news site owned by News Corp Australia
9News – news site run by Nine Network

The press

The Sydney Morning Herald – daily
Herald Sun – Melbourne-based daily
The Australian – national daily
The Daily Telegraph – Sydney-based daily
The Courier-Mail – Brisbane-based daily
The West Australian – Perth-based daily
The Age – Melbourne-based daily
The Advertiser – Adelaide-based daily
Australian Financial Review – business daily

Television

ABC – national, public
ABC News – ABC’s 24-hour news TV
SBS TV – public, multilingual
Seven Network – national, commercial
Nine Network – national, commercial
Network Ten – national, commercial
Sky News Australia – satellite/cable news network, owned by News Corp Australia
Foxtel – pay TV, owned by News Corp Australia and Telstra

Radio

ABC – public, operates speech-cultural network Radio National, ABC NewsRadio, youth network Triple J, ABC Classic FM and local services
Radio Australia – ABC external service, serves Asia-Pacific
SBS Radio-public, multilingual
Commercial Radio Australia – industry organisation

Internet Data

Internet users
94.9% penetration, 25.51 million

Share of web traffic by device
41.84% mobile phones, 54.15% computers (laptops and desktops), 3.94% tablet devices and 0.07% other devices.

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
93.91  Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
54.41 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 126.4%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 100%

Most popular web search engines
Google (93.57%), Bing (4.76%), Yahoo (0.73%), DuckduckGo (0.61%), Ecosia (0.12%), Yandex (0.1%).

Most used social media
Facebook (62.09%), Instagram (11.75%), Youtube (8.66%), Pinterest (7.66%),  X (7.51%), reddit (1.14%).

Social statistics

Life expectancy
83 yrs (2021)

Average age of the population
37.9 yrs (2020)

Glass Ceiling Index
63.2 out 100, ranked 16th out of 29 countries.

The glass-ceiling index measures the environment for working women combining data on higher education, labor-force participation, pay, child-care costs, maternity and paternity rights, business-school applications, and representation in senior jobs.

CO2 emissions
14.8 metric tons per capita (2020).

World Happiness Index
Australia ranked 38 out of 146 countries, with a score of 6.293.

Ethnicity
Australia is one of the most ethnically diverse societies in the world. Almost one in four Australian residents were born outside of Australia and many more are first or second generation Australians including children and grandchildren of recently arrived migrants and refugees. These wide varieties of backgrounds, together with the culture of Indigenous Australians who have lived on the continent for more than 50,000 years, have helped create a uniquely Australian identity and spirit. The general society is quite tolerant and embraces the diversity of its immigrants resulting in a myriad of accepted social values, mores and norms. The workplace reflects this melting pot and by and large is enhanced by the differing views and paradigms that coexist. Workplace diversity is embraced and encouraged, especially by large public and private sector organisations.

Urbanisation
86% (2022)

Unemployment rate
3.7% (2022)

Education expenditure:
92.3% of GDP.

Health expenditure:
10.65% of GDP (2020).

Corruption perceptions Index
Australia scored 75 out of 100, ranked 13 out 180 countries worldwide.

Religion
A century ago, ninety-six per cent of Australians identified as Christian and religion was a prominent factor of civic life. However, things have changed significantly since then.  Although Christianity remains the dominant belief system in Australia, its civic voice has faded significantly. Extensive immigration has made Australia one of the most religiously diverse societies in the world. Almost all faiths are represented, with significant numbers of Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, and Hindus. Many indigenous Australians have embraced Christianity, often as a result of their contact with missionaries and missions. During the latter part of the 20th century religious diversity grew substantially, as did the number of people who do not profess any religion. The workplace accommodates this array of diversity within its Australian workforce.