Europeans began to settle permanently in 1826 when Albany was claimed by Britain

to forestall French claims to the western third of the continent. Perth was fou
nded as the Swan River Colony in 1829 by British and Irish settlers, though the
outpost languished. Its officials eventually requested convict labour to augment
its population. In the 1890s, interstate immigration, resulting from a mining b
oom in the Goldfields region, resulted in a sharp population increase.
Western Australia did not receive significant flows of immigrants from Britain,
Ireland or elsewhere in the British Empire until the early 20th century. At that
time, its local projects such as the Group Settlement Scheme of the 1920s, which
encouraged farmers to settle the southwest increased awareness of Australia's west
ern third as a destination for colonists.
Led by immigrants from the British Isles, Western Australia's population develop
ed at a faster rate during the twentieth century than it had previously. After W
orld War II, both the eastern states and Western Australia received large number
s of Italians, Croatians and Macedonians. Despite this, Britain has contributed
the greatest number of immigrants to this day. Western Australia particularly Pert
h has the highest proportion of British-born of any state: 10.3% in 2011, compared
to a national average of 5.1%. This group is heavily concentrated in certain pa
rts, where they account for a quarter of the population.[17]
In terms of ethnicity, the 2001 census data revealed that 77.5% of Western Austr
alia's population was of European descent: the largest single group was those re
porting English ethnicity, accounting for 733,783 responses (32.7%), followed by
Australian with 624,259 (27.8%), Irish with 171,667 (7.6%), Italian with 96,721
(4.3%), Scottish with 62,781 (2.8%), German with 51,672 (2.3%), and Chinese wit
h 48,894 responses (2.2%). There were 58,496 Indigenous Australians in Western A
ustralia in 2001, forming 3.1% of the population.
According to the 2011 census data, the most common ancestries in Western Austral
ia were English 29.0% (848,230), Australian 24.8% (724,360), Irish 6.4% (187,038
), Scottish 6.4% (186,475) and Italian 3.8% (111,894).[18] There were 69,664 (3.
1%) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians living in Western Australi
a in the 2011 census.[18]
Ethnicity
Population
Percentage
English 848,230 29%
Australian
724,360 24.8%
Irish 187,038 6.4%
Scottish
186,475 6.4%
Italian 111,894 3.8%
Indigenous
69,664 3.1%
In terms of birthplace, in the 2011 census 33.2% of the population were born ove
rseas
the highest proportion of any state or territory. People born in the Unite
d Kingdom (230,410), New Zealand (70,736) and South Africa (35,326) were the lar
gest groups of immigrants, accounting for 45% of the state's overseas-born popul
ation.[17]
Perth's metropolitan area (including Mandurah) had an estimated population of 1.
729 million in 2011 (77% of the state).[19] Other significant population centres
include Bunbury (64,385),[20] Geraldton (31,349),[21] Kalgoorlie-Boulder (30,84
1),[22] Albany (26,643),[23] Karratha (16,475),[24] Broome (12,766)[25] and Port
Hedland (13,772).[26]