Overview

Australia is a stable, culturally diverse and democratic society with a skilled workforce and a strong, competitive economy. With a population of more than 21 million, Australia is the only nation to govern an entire continent. It is the earth’s biggest island and the sixth-largest country in the world in land area. Australia is one of the world’s oldest landmasses and has been populated by human beings for an estimated 60 000 years. Before the arrival of European settlers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples inhabited most areas of the continent. Australia’s contemporary history is relatively short, with the first European settlement established by Great Britain on 26 January 1788. Australia has 10 per cent of the world’s biodiversity and a great number of its native plants, animals and birds exist nowhere else in the world. Australia is committed to conserving its unique environment and natural heritage and has a range of protection procedures in place, including World Heritage listings and many national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

Australia has the 14th biggest overall economy in the world and the 9th biggest industrialised economy (2007). Australia is the 15th richest nation in per capita terms, and is the 6th oldest continuously functioning democracy in the world.

Australia’s population includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and migrants from some 200 countries. In over 60 years of planned post-war migration, Australia has welcomed more than 6.5 million migrants, including more than 660 000 refugees. During this time, the population has tripled from about 7 million.

Migrants have brought with them language skills and other capabilities that are valuable in today’s global economy and workforce. Although English is the official language in Australia, more than 3 million Australians speak a language other than English at home. As a result, Australia offers the familiarity of a Western business culture with a workforce capable of operating in many different recorded 17 consecutive years of economic growth since 1992 – averaging 3.3 per cent a year. It has been one of the most stable and productive periods of Australia’s modern history, and places Australia in the top echelon of developed countries in terms of sustained rates of growth. Australia is forecast to grow again at 2.75 per cent in 2008-09 which is above the average growth rate members of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) of 2.2 per cent.

Economy

Australia is the thirteenth largest economy in the world. As of 2009, Australia GDP was estimated to be $920 billion. Australia has managed an impressive 18 years of continuous growth since 1992. Even during the Financial Crisis, Australia kept growing, managing 0.732% thanks to its commodity exports. Forecasts suggest growth will continue at least for the next five years, peaking at 3.4% in 2012.

Indeed, being both a country and a continent, the only one in the world, Australia is a land of huge natural resources and beautiful coastlines.

Being a land with enough variation in topography and sand, huge deposits of gold, iron, bauxite, iron, manganese, opals and sapphires have been identified. Natural gas deposits are evenly spread throughout the continent.

Given these factors, it is no wonder that the Australian economy is one of the strongest economies in the world and follows a laissez-faire policy. The country features an enviable per capita GDP of $37,302 (Australia GDP per capita), slightly higher than that of the United States, UK, Germany and France, putting it in 15th position.

This is partly due to the small Australian population of 22,175,475 (2010 estimates) in a large country. A majority of the population resides in the vicinity of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane.

Australia is a western-style market economy. The services sector is the largest, accounting for 71% of GDP in 2008 (Australia Gross Domestic Product by Sector). Although the agricultural and mining sectors are small, 4.7% of GDP combined, they contribute approximately 65% of exports.