Study: Australia’s pre-colonial Indigenous population may have been 2.22 million
A new study suggests that the median size of Australia’s Indigenous population before British colonization in 1788 may have been 2.22 million people. This is significantly higher than previous estimates, which typically ranged from 250,000 to 1 million people.
Population estimation methods
As Anadolu Agency reports, the study was published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour. The authors used archaeological and genetic data, historical observations, and computer modeling of the continent’s ecological carrying capacity to reconstruct the population size before British colonization.
The scientists noted that early estimates were complicated by the lack of systematic population records. In addition, by the time the first colonial population estimates appeared, the number of Indigenous communities had already declined due to disease and violence.
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Demographic losses after colonization
According to the researchers’ calculations, about 93% of the pre-colonial Indigenous population was lost in less than 80 years after the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. The authors linked the demographic collapse to the consequences of colonization, including disease and violence in frontier areas.
To reconcile the new population estimate with historical census records, the researchers calculated that about 2.06 million excess deaths must have occurred between 1788 and 1861.
