Stability and Change in Ethnic Identification: An Aggregate Level Analysis

Siew-Ean Khoo, Australian National University

The paper uses a cohort approach to detect changes in the identification of ethnic origin between the 1986 and 2001 Australian censuses. The aim was to observe whether particular ancestry groups were more or less likely to show stability or change in their numbers between the two censuses. Age-sex specific survival ratios were applied to three 15-year age cohorts by ancestry in 1986 to estimate the number that would have survived to 2001, adjusting for emigration and underenumeration. Some groups appeared to demonstrate remarkable consistency in their ancestry response in the two censuses. Others showed an increase in numbers between the two censuses that could be attributed to differences in the format of the ancestry question and the guidelines and examples provided on the census form. The coding of only two ancestries appeared to have contributed to a decrease in the size of some groups.