What does it take to be truly Australian?
Being able to speak English matters much more than religion, sharing in cultural traditions or even birthplace, new polling shows.
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Just over two-thirds believe speaking the national language is "very important" to being a true Australian. Another 25 per cent said it was "somewhat important" according to an international study by America's Pew Research Centre.
But Australians don't draw a strong link between national identity and a person's birthplace. Only 13 per cent said being born in Australia was crucial to being a true national. That was the second lowest share among the 14 nations surveyed as part of Pew's study (Sweden was lowest with 8 per cent). The survey found 21 per cent of Canadians, 32 per cent of Americans and 50 per cent of Japanese think it's very important for a person to be born in their country in order to be considered a true national.
"Nearly seven in 10 Australians voice the view that where a person is born is not very important or not important at all," said the report titled What it takes to be truly one of us.
The latest Bureau of Statistics estimates show that 6.7 million Australian residents – just over 28 per cent of the population – were born overseas.
Sharing the "customs and traditions" of Australia was considered very important to national identity by half of those surveyed. But just 13 per cent of Australians tied national identity strongly to being a Christian. That compared with 32 per cent in the United States, 18 per cent in Britain and 15 per cent in Canada.
In Australia 79 per cent of Coalition voters and 68 per cent of Labor supporters believe is its very important to speak English to be considered a true Australian. But only one-third of Greens voters held that view.
A majority in all age groups said speaking English was essential to national identity, but older Australians (78 per cent) were more likely to voice that opinion than younger ones (59 per cent).
Older Australians were more likely than younger ones to see an adherence to customs and traditions as strongly linked to national identity. Australians with a high school education or less were also more likely to strongly associate national identity with customs and traditions than those with a degree.
A clear majority in all countries surveyed said it is very important to speak the dominant language to be considered a true national of that land.
"Of the national identity attributes included in the Pew Research Centre survey, language far and away is seen as the most critical to national identity," the report said.