Europeans began to settle permanently in 1826 when Albany was claimed by Britain to forestall French claims to the western third of the continent. Perth was founded as the Swan River Colony in 1829 by British and Irish settlers, though the outpost languished. Its officials eventually requested convict labour to augment its population. In the 1890s, interstate immigration, resulting from a mining boom in the Goldfields region, resulted in a sharp population increase.Western Australia did not receive significant flows of immigrants from Britain, Ireland or elsewhere in the British Empire until the early 20th century. At that time, its local projectssuch as the Group Settlement Scheme of the 1920s, which encouraged farmers to settle the southwestincreased awareness of Australia's western third as a destination for colonists.Led by immigrants from the British Isles, Western Australia's population developed at a faster rate during the twentieth century than it had previously. After World War II, both the eastern states and Western Australia received large numbers of Italians, Croatians and Macedonians. Despite this, Britain has contributed the greatest number of immigrants to this day. Western Australiaparticularly Perthhas the highest proportion of British-born of any state: 10.3% in 2011, compared to a national average of 5.1%. This group is heavily concentrated in certain parts, where they account for a quarter of the population.[17]In terms of ethnicity, the 2001 census data revealed that 77.5% of Western Australia's population was of European descent: the largest single group was those reporting English ethnicity, accounting for 733,783 responses (32.7%), followed by Australian with 624,259 (27.8%), Irish with 171,667 (7.6%), Italian with 96,721 (4.3%), Scottish with 62,781 (2.8%), German with 51,672 (2.3%), and Chinese with 48,894 responses (2.2%). There were 58,496 Indigenous Australians in Western Australia in 2001, forming 3.1% of the population.According to the 2011 census data, the most common ancestries in Western Australia were English 29.0% (848,230), Australian 24.8% (724,360), Irish 6.4% (187,038), Scottish 6.4% (186,475) and Italian 3.8% (111,894).[18] There were 69,664 (3.1%) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians living in Western Australia in the 2011 census.[18]Ethnicity Population PercentageEnglish 848,230 29%Australian 724,360 24.8%Irish 187,038 6.4%Scottish 186,475 6.4%Italian 111,894 3.8%Indigenous 69,664 3.1%In terms of birthplace, in the 2011 census 33.2% of the population were born overseas the highest proportion of any state or territory. People born in the United Kingdom (230,410), New Zealand (70,736) and South Africa (35,326) were the largest groups of immigrants, accounting for 45% of the state's overseas-born population.[17]Perth's metropolitan area (including Mandurah) had an estimated population of 1.729 million in 2011 (77% of the state).[19] Other significant population centres include Bunbury (64,385),[20] Geraldton (31,349),[21] Kalgoorlie-Boulder (30,841),[22] Albany (26,643),[23] Karratha (16,475),[24] Broome (12,766)[25] and Port Hedland (13,772).[26]