Australian Culture Research Paper

Australia, the 6th largest country in the world, has a square mileage of 2,967,892 and a population exceeding 23,895,200, making it the 52nd most populous in the world. More than 1/5 of Australians, about 4.293 million, live in Sydney making it the largest city in Australia. The life expectancy rates for males and females, similar to those of the US, are approximately 79 and 83, and the infant mortality rate being low at only 5 out of every 1,000 births. The most prominent spoken language is English although about 50 out of the 250 Aboriginal languages are still being used and preserved by Australian officials. Religion throughout Australia is not a huge asset to daily life though 76% of Australians consider themselves a denomination of Christianity; the other 24% are mostly unreligious or unaccounted for.

A distinguished cultural trait to Australia is often when female friends or friends of the opposite sex get together or meet, they will often hug each other followed by a kiss on the right cheek. Another thing unique to Australia is a subculture, group within its own unique values, norms and behaviors that exist within a larger culture, of the Australians who live in the Outback. Only a very small 10 percent of Aussies live in the Outback, mostly miners, sheep farmers or cattle herders, giving them a different way of life compared to those who live near the coast. Very similar to a subculture is a counterculture, a group that rejects the values, norms and practices of a larger society and replaces them with a new set of cultural patterns. An example of a counterculture in Australia is the Sharpies; the Sharpies are members of suburban youth gangs that were most prominent in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth during the 1960’s and 1970’s. The Sharpies were most well known for their violence and for dressing sharp, hence the name of the