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Daily Mail. Published: 30 April 2025
India is poised to overtake the United Kingdom as the leading country of origin for Australian migrants as soon as this year.
On Wednesday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics published annual data on migration, showing there are more Australians born overseas - 8.58 million, or 31.5 per cent of the total population measured at June 2024 - than at any point in history.
That is up from 8.2 million or 30.7 per cent the previous year, and 6.6 million or 28 per cent a decade ago.
'The demographic markers of the nation's White Australia Policy are well and truly coming to an end,' ANU demographer Liz Allen told AAP.
The chief drivers of the soaring migrant numbers are Indian arrivals.
The number of Indian-born people living in Australia more than doubled in the decade to June 2024, jumping from 411,240 to 916,330.
Vasan Srinivasan, the president of the Federation of Indian Associations of Victoria, said the experience for new Indian migrants is totally different to what he encountered in 1987.
As of June 2022, there were 753,520 people born in India living in Australia, which is more than double the number recorded in 2012, with many gaining entry through the student visa system. Pictured: Indians in Sydney.
'Back then, if you saw an Indian at Flinders St Station you'd take them home to have lunch or dinner,' he tells AAP.
He says Indians feel trusted and respected in Australia, with each migrant passing on good reviews of their life to friends and family back home.
'Australians are much more easier to work with and understand ... Australians trust you and that doesn't happen in UK or USA,' he said.
'Australians are much more tolerant and easy-going, and they respect you.
'Plus, it's peaceful here and far away from troubles.'
The leading country of origin in Australia has traditionally been the UK, but migrants from Old Blighty are trending downward.
There were 1.01m Australians born in Britain in 2014, but last year, that number fell to 963,560 - meaning, that on current trends, Indian migrants could leapfrog the UK as soon as 2025.
The four countries with the biggest rises of migrants in the past five years are India (505,000 people), China (234,000), the Philippines (164,000) and Nepal (155,000).
Dr Allen said the shift 'from European roots to more localised nations in the Asia Pacific' was occurring as ageing countries - like the UK, Canada and Germany - compete with Australia for skilled migration.
'Younger populations outside the world's most pronounced ageing nations are increasingly becoming sources of Australia's migration to help maintain a healthy economy,' she said.
'Australia's local population age structure is insufficient to meet the needs of the workforce. Migration is essential to Australia's economic health.'
Other countries to register noticeable rises include Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Colombia and South Africa.
New Zealand, for some time the second-biggest country of origin for Australians, is now fourth, behind the UK, India and China.
This dataset is one of the few managed by the ABS that pre-dates Federation, with records going back to 1891.
It was in that year, ten years before the colonies federated to form Australia, that the proportion of the overseas-born population was higher than it is today, standing at 32 per cent then and 31.5 per cent now.
Migration then was almost exclusively from the UK and Ireland and the total population on the continent was 3.17 million, not including Aboriginal people who were not counted in those figures.
The lowest migration rate across that 133 year-timespan was in 1947, when just 10 per cent of Australians were born overseas.
That was just prior to the onset of large-scale migration from southern Europe - Italy, Greece and then Yugoslavia - in the wake of the devastation of World War Two.
The rate has climbed in almost every year since.
----------------
Some data:
One in three Aussies were born overseas - Published: 30 April 2025
Government source: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/p...alias-population-country-birth/latest-release
Most of the growth is from Indian, Chinese, and various South / Southeast Asian people.
Australia also has over a million foreign students, with more than half of them being from China/India/etc: https://www.education.gov.au/intern...ional-student-monthly-summary-and-data-tables
----------------
The 2025 Australian federal election starts tomorrow. Take a look at these recent MSM news articles, btw (
):
Canada v2.0? Good luck, Aussies!
Daily Mail. Published: 30 April 2025
Indians set to overtake Brits as top Aussie migrants
India is poised to overtake the United Kingdom as the leading country of origin for Australian migrants as soon as this year.
On Wednesday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics published annual data on migration, showing there are more Australians born overseas - 8.58 million, or 31.5 per cent of the total population measured at June 2024 - than at any point in history.
That is up from 8.2 million or 30.7 per cent the previous year, and 6.6 million or 28 per cent a decade ago.
'The demographic markers of the nation's White Australia Policy are well and truly coming to an end,' ANU demographer Liz Allen told AAP.
The chief drivers of the soaring migrant numbers are Indian arrivals.
The number of Indian-born people living in Australia more than doubled in the decade to June 2024, jumping from 411,240 to 916,330.
Vasan Srinivasan, the president of the Federation of Indian Associations of Victoria, said the experience for new Indian migrants is totally different to what he encountered in 1987.
As of June 2022, there were 753,520 people born in India living in Australia, which is more than double the number recorded in 2012, with many gaining entry through the student visa system. Pictured: Indians in Sydney.
'Back then, if you saw an Indian at Flinders St Station you'd take them home to have lunch or dinner,' he tells AAP.
He says Indians feel trusted and respected in Australia, with each migrant passing on good reviews of their life to friends and family back home.
'Australians are much more easier to work with and understand ... Australians trust you and that doesn't happen in UK or USA,' he said.
'Australians are much more tolerant and easy-going, and they respect you.
'Plus, it's peaceful here and far away from troubles.'
The leading country of origin in Australia has traditionally been the UK, but migrants from Old Blighty are trending downward.
There were 1.01m Australians born in Britain in 2014, but last year, that number fell to 963,560 - meaning, that on current trends, Indian migrants could leapfrog the UK as soon as 2025.
The four countries with the biggest rises of migrants in the past five years are India (505,000 people), China (234,000), the Philippines (164,000) and Nepal (155,000).
Dr Allen said the shift 'from European roots to more localised nations in the Asia Pacific' was occurring as ageing countries - like the UK, Canada and Germany - compete with Australia for skilled migration.
'Younger populations outside the world's most pronounced ageing nations are increasingly becoming sources of Australia's migration to help maintain a healthy economy,' she said.
'Australia's local population age structure is insufficient to meet the needs of the workforce. Migration is essential to Australia's economic health.'
Other countries to register noticeable rises include Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Colombia and South Africa.
New Zealand, for some time the second-biggest country of origin for Australians, is now fourth, behind the UK, India and China.
This dataset is one of the few managed by the ABS that pre-dates Federation, with records going back to 1891.
It was in that year, ten years before the colonies federated to form Australia, that the proportion of the overseas-born population was higher than it is today, standing at 32 per cent then and 31.5 per cent now.
Migration then was almost exclusively from the UK and Ireland and the total population on the continent was 3.17 million, not including Aboriginal people who were not counted in those figures.
The lowest migration rate across that 133 year-timespan was in 1947, when just 10 per cent of Australians were born overseas.
That was just prior to the onset of large-scale migration from southern Europe - Italy, Greece and then Yugoslavia - in the wake of the devastation of World War Two.
The rate has climbed in almost every year since.
----------------
Some data:
One in three Aussies were born overseas - Published: 30 April 2025
Government source: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/p...alias-population-country-birth/latest-release
Most of the growth is from Indian, Chinese, and various South / Southeast Asian people.
Australia also has over a million foreign students, with more than half of them being from China/India/etc: https://www.education.gov.au/intern...ional-student-monthly-summary-and-data-tables
----------------
The 2025 Australian federal election starts tomorrow. Take a look at these recent MSM news articles, btw (
):Canada v2.0? Good luck, Aussies!
