Chinese Australians
As a whole, Australian residents identifying themselves as having Chinese ancestry made up 5.6% of those nominating their ancestry at the 2016 census and numbered 1,213,903. At the 2016 census, 509,555 people declared that they were born in Mainland China, 86,886 declared that they were born in Hong Kong, while 46,882 declared that they were born in Taiwan. There are also a large number of persons of Chinese ancestry among those born in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Immigrant health in Australia
According to the 1861 Colonial Census, Chinese-born persons made up 3.4% of the Australian population, equating to approximately 38,258 Chinese in Australia after 1842 when the Chinese first settled in Australia. Some arrived in Australia hoping to escape the civil disorder of China, although the majority of Chinese migrated to Australia after hearing about the gold rush.