Ethnic background of the 30 Australian Prime Ministers

[Creoda]

From 1901 to Present:

1 - Edmund Barton - English
2 - Alfred Deakin - Mostly English, minority Welsh
3 - Chris Watson - 1/2 German, 1/2 Irish. Born in Chile.
4 - George Reid - Scottish. Born in Scotland
5 - Andrew Fisher - Scottish. Born in Scotland
6 - Joseph Cook - English. Born in England
7 - Billy Hughes - Welsh. Born in England
8 - Stanley Bruce - Scottish
9 - James Scullin - Irish
10 - Joseph Lyons - Irish
11 - Earle Page - 3/4 English, 1/4 Scottish
12 - Robert Menzies - 1/2 Scottish, 1/2 Cornish
13 - Arthur Fadden - 1/2 Irish, 1/2 Ulster Scots
14 - John Curtin - Irish
15 - Frank Forde - Irish
16 - Ben Chifley - Irish
17 - Harold Holt - English, 1/8 German, Irish, 1/8 Cornish
18 - John McEwen - 1/2 Ulster Scottish, 37.5% English, 1/8 Irish
19 - John Gorton - 1/2 English, 37.5% Irish, 1/8 German
20 - William McMahon - 62.5% Irish, 37.5% English
21 - Gough Whitlam - Over 2/3 English, 1/4 Scottish, 1/16 Welsh
22 - Malcolm Fraser - 37.5% Irish, 1/4 Scottish, 1/4 Ashkenazi Jewish, 1/8 English
23 - Bob Hawke - 84% Cornish, 15% English
24 - Paul Keating - Over 1/2 Irish, minority English
25 - John Howard - English, Scottish & Irish
26 - Kevin Rudd - English & Irish
27 - Julia Gillard - English, Irish, 1/16 Scottish. Born in Wales
28 - Tony Abbott - 3/4 British (mostly English, minor Scottish), 1/4 Dutch. Born in England
29 - Malcolm Turnbull - Over 1/2 English, 37.5% Scottish, 1/16 Irish
30 - Scott Morrison - 1/2 English, 28.12% Scottish, 1/8 Cornish, 9.37% Irish

[Duffmannn]

So boring

[Tooting Carmen]

So boring

My thoughts too. All the same, apart from Obama, the US list of presidents isn't a lot more diverse.

[Grace O'Malley]

It's not boring to me. It shows how the Irish made their mark in Australia and achieved so much so early. It's interesting that Catholics were not held back in Australia like they were in the UK and US.

It's not like Australia was a melting pot in the early days so not sure what people are expecting. Things will change in the future as Australia now is quite diverse.

I mean US has now only had it's 2nd Catholic President. Boris was baptised a Catholic but is an Anglican so there has been no Catholic UK PM.

[Crn Volk]

Current opposition leader Anthony Albanese is of Italian descent. He could be the first non Anglo-Celtic PM

[Creoda]

It's not boring to me. It shows how the Irish made their mark in Australia and achieved so much so early. It's interesting that Catholics were not held back in Australia like they were in the UK and US.

It's not like Australia was a melting pot in the early days so not sure what people are expecting. Things will change in the future as Australia now is quite diverse.

I'm collating the genealogical origins of 200+ multi-generational Australian kits I found, who are overwhelmingly Anglo-Celtic, to see proportionally what regions/nations they're from. What is noteworthy (but unsurprising if you live here) and something I'm trying to underscore, is how mixed Anglo-Celtic they are, even from the beginning. English-Irish marriages everywhere in spite of the religious division, so nearly all today are mixed. This is in contrast to the US, where English, Scots-Irish, and Irish managed to stay relatively segregated for a long time. It also puts paid to anthroforum notions that Australians are somehow more Germanic/Anglo-Saxon than the English; although it must be said that German ancestry is surprisingly common in Colonial Australia. They completely assimilated.

If that doesn't entertain Hispanics like Tooting Carmen that's a shame, but needless to say it's diverse enough for me.

[Tooting Carmen]

I'm collating the genealogical origins of 200+ multi-generational Australian kits I found, who are overwhelmingly Anglo-Celtic, to see proportionally what regions/nations they're from. What is noteworthy (but unsurprising if you live here) and something I'm trying to underscore, is how mixed Anglo-Celtic they are, even from the beginning. English-Irish marriages everywhere in spite of the religious division, so nearly all today are mixed. This is in contrast to the US, where English, Scots-Irish, and Irish managed to stay relatively segregated for a long time. It also puts paid to anthroforum notions that Australians are somehow more Germanic/Anglo-Saxon than the English; although it must be noted that German ancestry is surprisingly common in Colonial Australia. They completely assimilated.

If that doesn't entertain Hispanics like Tooting Carmen that's a shame, but needless to say it's diverse enough for me.

LOL I am not suggesting for one moment that Aussie PMs should be from everywhere from Mongolia to Burkina Faso! Still, it is astonishing how rarely they even have European ancestry from outside the British Isles.

[TheMaestro]

Current opposition leader Anthony Albanese is of Italian descent. He could be the first non Anglo-Celtic PM

From Apulia, south east Italy, what do you think that suggests? XD

[Davystayn]

It's not boring to me. It shows how the Irish made their mark in Australia and achieved so much so early. It's interesting that Catholics were not held back in Australia like they were in the UK and US.

It's not like Australia was a melting pot in the early days so not sure what people are expecting. Things will change in the future as Australia now is quite diverse.

I mean US has now only had it's 2nd Catholic President. Boris was baptised a Catholic but is an Anglican so there has been no Catholic UK PM.

Interesting how many are Irish, as you say compared to UK and the US, is it fair to say Catholism was never much of an issue in Australia? There seem to be loads of Catholic schools for example

[Sharpshooter]

It's not boring to me. It shows how the Irish made their mark in Australia and achieved so much so early. It's interesting that Catholics were not held back in Australia like they were in the UK and US.

It's not like Australia was a melting pot in the early days so not sure what people are expecting. Things will change in the future as Australia now is quite diverse.

I mean US has now only had it's 2nd Catholic President. Boris was baptised a Catholic but is an Anglican so there has been no Catholic UK PM.

Boris recently married Carrie Symonds in a Catholic Church and has returned back to Catholicism. So as of June 2021, he is officially Britains first Catholic Prime Minister.

A Catholic prime minister in No 10 is a watershed moment