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Australia

Oceania

To which language should you translate to localize in Australia ?

What we know from our community

Whilst Australia has no official national language, English has been adopted as the de facto national language since European settlement. When the British literally shipped their convicts from Britain to Australia, the amalgamation of many different British dialects and accents came together to create “Australian English” and the Australian accent the world knows today.

It makes sense then, that Australian English is closer to British English in spelling and pronunciation than American English. For example, Australian English uses the “ou” spelling in words such as “colour” and “favour”; the “re” spelling in words such as  “centre” and “litre”; and a double “l” in words such as “travelling” and “cancelled”. Australian English also uses the “-ise” spelling opposed to the “-ize” spelling of American English. 

Date formats are also significantly different with Australian English using the DD/MM/YYYY (day, month, year) format opposed to the MM/DD/YYYY (month, day, year) of the American English system.

Australian English is also known worldwide for its interesting and colorful colloquialisms. Australians refer to the “countryside” as the “outback” or the “bush”; “g’day” is used as a simple everyday greeting, and many words are often shortened with an “ie” or “y”, for example “barbie” for “BBQ” and “footy” for “football”.

Now, if you need others information about that country to make your decision, below you can find a selection of economic/social/cultural data


Introduction


Language

Official language
English

English is the only language spoken in the home for close to 72.7% of the population. The next most common languages spoken at home are: Mandarin (2.5%) and Arabic (1.4%)

T-index
1.5%

T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.

Actual languages
Indigenous: Australian Aboriginal languages, Tasmanian languages, Torres Strait Island languages

Demography

Capital: Canberra
Currency:  Australian dollar
Population: 25,74 m (2020) 
Population density: 3/km2

Economy

GDP: 1,542,659.90 billion USD (2020)
GDP per capita: 59,934.1 USD ‎(2020) ‎
Exports: $250 billion (2020)

Statistics

Internet users: 91% penetration, 23.60 million
Unemployment rate: 5.1% (2021)
Urbanisation: 77.38% (2019)
Literacy: 99% (2019)

Conventions

Numbering system
Arabic numerals with dot as decimal separator, comma as thousands separator

Date format: dd-mm-yyyy
Time: 12h time system (a.m/p.m)
Country code: 0061


Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica//EF/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal

Facts and data


Economy

Imports
$202 billion (2019).  Cars ($13.7B), Refined Petroleum ($10.8B), Gold ($6.49B), Broadcasting Equipment ($6.38B), and Computers ($5.76B), importing mostly from China ($57.2B), United States ($24.2B), Japan ($12.2B), Thailand ($10.4B), and Germany ($9.67B).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 100% have an account with a financial institution
• 60% 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 (2019, World Bank)

Exports
$250 billion (2020).  Iron Ore ($79.6B), Coal Briquettes ($36.4B), Petroleum Gas ($26.8B), Gold ($17.7B), and Frozen Bovine Meat ($4B), exporting mostly to China ($102B), Japan ($31.8B), South Korea ($17.2B), United States ($11.6B), and India ($11.3B).

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

Economic freedom
‘Free’ (77.7 out of 100) ranked 9th out of 39 Asia-Pacific countries ranked 14th 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, 25th out of 132 worldwide.

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


Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal


Service Imports (2018)

Source: OEC


Service Exports (2018)

Source: OEC


Most Complex Products by PCI

Product Complexity Index measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters

Source: OEC


Most Specialised Products by RCA Index

Specialisation is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage, an index that takes the ratio between Australia observed and expected exports in each product

Source: OEC


Export Opportunities by Relatedness

Specialisation is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage, an index that takes the ratio between Australia observed and expected exports in each product

Source: OEC


What Australians shop for online

Source: Finder


T-index

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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”.

Value of the newspaper market in Australia 2.62 billion USD

Digital readership of magazines in Australia: 6,058 thousands

Print readership of Magazines in Australia 13,648 thousands

Share of consumers who pay for printed newspaper in Australia by age

  • Over 35: 40%
  • Under 35: 40%

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

News agency

AAPAustralian Associated Press


Readership in thousands by newspaper by day

Media data source: BBC


Internet Data

Internet users
88% penetration, 22.31 million

Share of web traffic by device
39.8% mobile phones, 55.41% computers (laptops and desktops), 4.68% tablet devices and 0.03% other devices

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
81.14  Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
47.40 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 123%

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

Most popular web search engines
Google (94.76%), Bing (3.38%), Yahoo (0.79%), DuckduckGo (0.7%), Ecosia (0.18%), Baidu (0.06%) 

Most used social media
Facebook (47.64%), Twitter (18.97%),  Instagram (17.83%), Pinterest (11.92%),YouTube (1.51%),  Tumblr (1%)


Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter


Social statistics

Life expectancy
83 yrs (2020)

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.

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
86.12% (2019)

Unemployment rate
7.091%

Share of population who hold a bachelor level degree or above in Australia:
28.4%

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.


Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF


Share of workers in Australia in 2019, by qualification level

Department of Employment; Australian Bureau of Statistics

Where it is hardest to afford home – Least affordable international housing markets ranked by house price to income ratio (2020)

Australian Bureau of Statistics

Share of office locations for startup in Australia in 2018

Australian Bureau of Statistics


The Data Factbook is a work in progress project. Our community is helping us to fill it up always with new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write your advices at imminent@translated.com


Languages research


Languages and dialects spoken in Australia

2nd Most common languages spoken at home

Legend

  • Mandarin

  • Italian

  • Australian Aboriginal Languages

3nd Most common language spoken at home

Legend

  • Arabic

  • Italian

  • Tagalog

  • Mandarin

  • Nepali

  • Vietnamese

3rd most common languages spoken at home

Legend

  • Greek

  • Vietnamese

  • Cantonese

  • Tagalog

  • German

4th most common languages spoken at home

Legend

  • Vietnamese

  • Cantonese

  • Greek

  • Mandarin

  • Hindi


The geographical distribution of languages that you will find in the maps published in this section is a work in progress. Our community is helping us to fill it up with always new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write to imminent.factbook@translated.com


Photo credit: Dan Freeman, Unsplash