CANBERRA, April 29 (Xinhua) -- The proportion of Australia's population who were born overseas rose to the highest level in over 130 years in 2025, according to official data released on Wednesday.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said that Australia's population of 27.6 million as of June 2025 included a record-high 8.83 million born overseas.
It said that the overseas-born population increased by 258,000 people between 2024 and 2025, while the Australian-born population increased by 161,000 people in the same period.
As a result, the proportion of the population born overseas hit 32 percent in 2025, up from 31.5 percent in 2024 and the highest figure since 1891 when 32.4 percent of the population was born overseas.
The proportion of Australians born in another country hit a record low of 9.8 percent in 1947, but has been steadily increasing ever since.
The ABS said that India was the most prominent country of birth for overseas-born residents for the first time on record in 2025, surpassing England.
It said that there were 971,020 Australian residents in 2025 who were born in India, an increase of 116 percent from 449,040 in 2015.
In the same 10-year span, the number of Australian residents born in China increased from 508,870 to 731,540.
The number of Australian residents born in England and Italy declined between 2015 and 2025, which the ABS attributed to their older median age due to high levels of migration after World War II. ■
