For the first time in the country’s history, England has been pushed out of the top position when it comes to Australian migration. New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that Indian-born residents now make up the largest percentage of the 8.33 million Australians who were born overseas.
Before 2025, English-born residents were the largest group, followed by those from India, China, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
As of 30 June 2025, the four most common countries of birth are India with 971,020 people, England with 970,950, China with 732,000, and New Zealand with 638,000.
The data also highlights that the overseas-born population has grown at a faster rate of 3 per cent annually, compared to the Australian-born population, which grew at an average of 1 per cent each year.
Over the past twenty years, from 2005 to 2025, the percentage of Australian residents born overseas has increased from 24.2 per cent to 32 per cent. This trend has seen fluctuations during certain periods, such as reduced migration during World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II.
The latest statistics reveal that 32 per cent of the overall Australian population are people born overseas, matching the high levels of migration seen in 1891 at the end of the gold rush era.
From the 1970s to 2020, there was a steady increase in the number of overseas-born residents, but this changed in 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic led to travel restrictions, affecting movement into and out of Australia.
When restrictions were lifted in 2023, the proportion of people born overseas exceeded a 30 per cent increase for the first time since 1893.
The current debate around Australian migration focuses on reducing high post-pandemic immigration to ease housing pressure. Surveys show that 49 per cent of people support such a decrease.
Immigration Minister Tony Burke recently addressed the issue in a press conference, stating, “Post-COVID, we had the sharpest increase.”
He added, “Since then, we’ve been having, with the exception of COVID, the sharpest decrease,” he said.
Bourke emphasized that the government is working to bring numbers back to “sustainable levels again.”
However, he warned that “you need to make sure that you don’t wreck your aged care system.”
“You need to make sure that we don’t end up with our farmers not being able to get people to pick their fruit,” he said.
“All of these things are essential to Australia’s economy.”
This was part of Burke’s strong defense of migration following the Coalition’s recent proposal to overhaul Australia’s migration policy.
“Australia is and should always be a country where we judge you by who you are, not where you’re from.”
“People say they love Australia and I do, and almost everybody on this continent does. Modern Australia is what they’re loving, and we are a multicultural nation.”
“Half of our doctors are born overseas, 43 per cent of our registered nurses are born overseas.”
“Twenty-eight per cent of people working in building and plumbing trades are born overseas.”
“What matters is who you are, not where you’re from, and effectively, if we forget the benefits to our nation and to our economy of having a smart tailored migration system, we end up with fewer homes, we would end up with a health system that would collapse.”
“We would end up with an age care system that could not provide the care that it needs and that all Australians rely on.”
“We are a good country and we should not be setting people against each other.”
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