<Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Related ethnic groups </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Irish people, Anglo - Celtic Australians, Scottish Australians, Welsh Australians, English Australians, Cornish Australians, Manx Australians </Td> </Tr> <P> Irish Australians (Irish: Gael - Astrálaigh) are an ethnic group of Australian citizens of Irish descent, which include immigrants from and descendants whose ancestry originates from the island of Ireland . Irish Australians have played a considerable part in the history of Australia . They came to Australia from the late eighteenth century on as convicts or settlers, and contributed largely to Australia's development in many different areas . From the late 19th century to the present about a third of the population in Australia is Irish . </P> <P> There is no definitive figure of the total number of Australians with an Irish background . At the 2011 Australian census, 2,087,800 residents identified themselves as having Irish ancestry either alone or in combination with another ancestry . This nominated ancestry was third behind English and Australian in terms of the largest number of responses and represents 10.4% of the total population of Australia . However this figure does not include Australians with an Irish background who chose to nominate themselves as' Australian' or other ancestries . The Australian embassy in Dublin states that up to 30% of the population claim some degree of Irish ancestry . </P>

How much of the population in australia did irish descendants make up until 1914