Cultural diversity has potential to add to community well-being through the representation and embracement of different values, ethnicities and cultures and the appreciation of the range of views and strengths this can represent.

AEC’s Place of Birth Indicator identifies the proportion (or share) of the total population who were born outside Australia. Whilst the Place of Birth Indicator is a good indication of the prevalence of migrants, it does not fully capture the degree of diversity of cultures present within a community. Whereas the Multicultural Diversity Indicator (MDI) provides guidance on the diversity of ancestral backgrounds of residents in a community, by comparing the proportion (or share) of the population outside the top 10 ancestral backgrounds to the proportion (or share) of the population in the top 3 ancestral backgrounds. On this indicator, if the size of the population outside the top 10 ancestral backgrounds is the same as the size of the population in the top 3 ancestral backgrounds, it will record an outcome of 1.0. Together, these two indicators can provide guidance on the degree of social diversity within a community.

The Sydney “Central City” region (defined by The Greater Sydney Commission[1]as Blacktown, Cumberland, Parramatta and The Hills local government areas) is one of the most culturally diverse in Australia, with local government areas within the catchment ranking in the top 15 in Australia for both the Place of Birth Indicator (Cumberland and Parramatta) and the Multicultural Diversity Indicator (Cumberland and Blacktown) in 2016. Central City outperforms the remaining four Districts of Sydney on these cultural diversity indicators.

Central City, and its neighbouring district of Western City (comprising the local government areas of Blue Mountains, Camden, Campbeltown, Fairfield, Hawkesbury, Liverpool, Penrith, Wollondilly), has played a key role in accommodating new migrants in Australia’s modern history. In particular, these areas of Sydney have benefited from the influx of Asian migrants since the late 1970s. The results of this migration are evident in the strong outcomes of Central City in terms of persons born overseas and the ancestral backgrounds of residents. Three of the four local governments with Central City are also Refugee Zones (Refugee Council of Australia, 2019), indicating that the cultural diversity of the region is likely to continue.

Every local government within Central City recorded a higher proportion of residents born overseas than Australia in 2016 (evidenced by outcomes above 1.0). Overseas migrants in Central City are primarily from India, China, Philippines, Korea and New Zealand which together comprised over 20% of the population in 2016.

AEC Place of Birth Indicator, 2016

In addition to having a high representation of migrants, residents in Central City are from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds. Central City records a strong outcome on the AEC Multicultural Diversity Indicator with a result of 0.70, suggesting the number of persons outside the top 10 ancestral backgrounds is approximately 70% of the number of persons in the top 3 ancestral backgrounds. Cumberland performs particularly strong on the Multicultural Diversity Indicator, at 0.99, suggesting there are almost as many residents outside the top 10 ancestral backgrounds as there are in the top 3 ancestral backgrounds. In keeping with the migration patterns to the area, the most common ancestral backgrounds in Central City in 2016 were Australian, English, Chinese and Indian.

AEC Multicultural Diversity Indicator, 2016