J Neurol (2011) 258:1140–1149 Table 1 Population by birthplace (Australia: UKI; other high risk MS countries) in Four States of Australia, at census day, 1901–1981 (excludes immigrants from other countries) 1901 1911 1921 1933 1947 1954 1961 1971 1981 1,079,154 220,401 31,162 323,436 126,159 22,495 288,815 56,395 8,630 126,952 41,551 7,506 1,818,357 444,506 69,793 1,377,219 205,369 31,987 446,695 120,428 21,508 350,261 44,744 8,563 209,050 50,836 9,381 2,383,225 421,377 71,439 1,772,614 260,426 37,301 592,163 128,234 19,955 436,991 46,326 7,221 248,866 66,739 6,661 3,050,634 501,725 71,138 2,245,555 284,601 41,777 787,718 120,482 18,265 524,609 45,361 5,737 328,946 89,066 6,832 3,886,828 539,510 72,611 2,681,514 222,096 45,274 992,178 82,654 13,054 602,521 32,718 4,272 411,035 69,608 5,527 4,687,248 407,076 68,127 2,960,124 247,102 114,987 1,160,595 92,951 29,879 686,489 50,477 32,511 489,699 83,814 28,589 5,296,907 474,344 205,966 3,290,372 269,077 163,631 1,341,069 93,329 39,537 783,228 78,786 52,248 572,182 83,365 30,723 5,986,851 524,557 286,139 3,643,535 342,797 184,701 1,549,662 114,989 50,404 884,928 146,391 53,736 729,379 153,512 42,171 6,807,504 757,689 331,012 3,992,904 331,741 222,264 1,906,136 140,816 91,608 980,826 151,832 55,090 904,992 183,680 56,062 7,784,858 808,069 425,024 Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, United States of America, New Zealand Source: Australian Historical Population Statistics, 2006, various Data Cubes in Excel File (106) Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra, Australia 1142 State NSW Australia UKI Other QLD Australia UKI Other SA Australia UKI Other WA Australia UKI Other Total 4 Australia UKI Other Fig. 1 Commonwealth of Australia in 1981 by state : Queensland (QLD), New South Wales (NSW), Victoria (VIC), South Australia (SA), Western Australia (WA), Tasmania (Tas) and Northern Territory (NT). Canberra (Federal Capital Territory), is geographically sur- rounded by NSW. Major cities are shown From 1947, increasing numbers of migrants lowered this percentage back to the ﬁrst ﬁgure, with 76% having been born in Australia at the 1981 census. 123 For this entire period the four states comprised some two-thirds of the total population at each census. Details for each of these states by birthplace and census are given in Table 1, citing the number of residents for the Austra- lian-born, the UKI immigrants, and the immigrants from the other MS high risk countries, as listed in the table. The migrant group from other high risk countries showed little change between 1901 and 1947, after which there was a marked increase. UKI immigrants increased modestly between 1901 and 1933, with then a sharp drop to 1947, and progressive increases thereafter. The average annual number of new immigrants for each group in each census year 1901–1981 is shown in Fig. 2 for all four states combined. For 1901–1910 the only state gaining appreciable numbers of new immigrants was WA, mostly from UKI. All states had increments in the next period of 1911–1920, almost all from UKI, and most of the annual immigrants were to NSW and WA. Only those two states showed modest gains in the next interval of 1921–1932. For 1933–1946 all the immigrants were from the ‘‘other’’ high risk countries, and all into NSW. Evidence indicates that they came in 1945 and 1946, after the end of World War II, as shown in Fig. 2. For 1901–1946 overall