National Identity

In 2012, 5000 citizens were randomly selected from the electoral roll. 1636 of them returned a completed questionnaire.

What questions were asked?

Questions included:

• ​How close do you feel to your town/city, state, Australia, Asia?
• ​What is important for being truly Australian? Being born here? Having Australian Citizenship? Speaking English? Being Christian?
• ​Are there things about Australia today that make you feel ashamed of Australia?
• ​How proud of you of Australia in the way democracy works? Economic achievements? Social security system? Scientific achievements? Sporting achievements? It’s history?
• ​Should foreigners be allowed to buy land in Australia?
• ​Do free trade deals lead to better products becoming available in Australia?
• ​Do large international companies do more damage to local businesses in Australia?
• ​Is it possible for people to become fully Australian without sharing Australia’s customs and traditions?
• ​Should racial and ethnic groups blend in to Australia or maintain their distinct customs and traditions?
• ​Are immigrants good for Australia’s economy? Do they increase crime rates?
• ​Should legal immigrants have access to public education like Australian citizens?
• ​Should immigration be increased, decreased or kept the same?
• ​Are strong patriot feelings good for Australia, or do they lead to intolerance?​

​Selected findings

Respondents were asked how important some things were for being “truly Australian”. The following graph shows the results of some of these items. Being able to speak English was noted as very or fairly important by over 90% of respondents. Being a Christian was chosen as not important at all for 50% of respondents.

Access to further information and results from AuSSA 2013

A summary (codebook) of the results from the AuSSA 2013 is available to view in your web browser

AuSSA data is lodged in the public domain by its deposit in the Australian Data Archive (ADA) – AuSSA 2013 archive. The ADA provides online analysis tools for those with basic data analysis skills who wish to use AuSSA in their own research. In addition, the data file can be downloaded free of charge for your own further analysis.

For more information:

Tel. 1800 122 251 (free call)
Email: surveys@acspri.org.au