Macedonian Australians

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Macedonian Australians are Australian residents and citizens who have Macedonian ancestry. In 2021, 111,352 Australians declared Macedonian ancestry, and 41,786 were born in North Macedonia. Macedonian is a common language at home in Australia, with about 66,173 people speaking it at home in 2021, making it the most-spoken Eastern European language in the country.

The largest Macedonian communities are in Melbourne, Sydney, Wollongong, Perth, Newcastle and Geelong. Most Macedonian Australians belong to the Macedonian Orthodox Church, with smaller numbers of Muslims and Methodists. People come from Greece’s Aegean region (Aegean Macedonians) as well as from areas that became the Republic of North Macedonia and other parts of the former Yugoslavia. Major waves of migration occurred in the 1920s–1930s, after World War II and during the 1960s–70s.

Communities built churches, cultural clubs, language schools and newspapers to keep their traditions alive. In Victoria (especially Melbourne), Western Australia (Perth) and New South Wales (Sydney) there are many Macedonian clubs and centers, including cultural groups known as KUDs, and several Macedonian churches.

In the 1990s there was a dispute about how Macedonians should be named in Australia in relation to Greece. The issue was resolved in 1998, allowing Macedonians to be identified without the earlier “Slav” prefix. In 2018, amid regional disputes, some Macedonians faced vandalism and organized demonstrations; many chose to boycott the referendum on naming in Greece.

Today, the Macedonian Australian community remains active and diverse, with thousands of people of Macedonian heritage living across the country. They keep their language, traditions and faith through families, churches, schools and cultural events.