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April 29, 2026 \u2014 8:00pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n India has overtaken England to become Australia\u2019s top overseas country of birth as the overseas-born share of the national population climbed to 32 per cent, the highest since 1891.<\/p>\n Australia had 8.8 million overseas-born residents in 2025 compared to 18.8 million people born within the country, figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics<\/a> on Wednesday show.<\/p>\n The Indian-born population rose to 971,020 making it the largest group born overseas for the first time. The number of residents born in India has risen by 522,000 since 2015.<\/p>\n Those born in England made up the second-largest group (970,950) with China third (732,000), New Zealand fourth (638,000) and the Philippines fifth (412,530).<\/p>\n Related Article The ABS said the proportion of overseas-born people in Australia is approaching the all-time high of 32.4 per cent reached in 1891, when the national population was about 2.7 million.<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s overseas-born population increased by 258,000 people in 2024-25, helping to lift the national population to 27.6 million.<\/p>\n Political conflict over immigration policy has flared during the past fortnight after federal Opposition Leader Angus Taylor promised a migration crackdown<\/a> and an emphasis on \u201cAustralian values\u201d in determining the country\u2019s migrant intake.<\/p>\n In a speech unveiling the new policy, Taylor claimed \u201cdeclining immigration standards have seen our door opened to too many migrants of transactional intent\u201d.<\/p>\n Labor ministers have slammed the Coalition proposals and accused Taylor of trying to \u201ccompete\u201d with One Nation.<\/p>\n The new ABS figures showing population by overseas country of birth underscored the scale and diversity of Australia\u2019s migrant community.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n KPMG urban economist Terry Rawnsley said the distribution of migrant communities differed from state to state.<\/p>\n \u201cIn NSW, China-born is No.1,\u201d he said. \u201cIn Victoria, Indian\u2011born residents are the largest migrant group; in Queensland, it\u2019s New Zealand\u2011born residents that hold sway, and western Sydney has a strong concentration of Maltese communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article Western Australia had the highest share of overseas-born residents among the states at 34.1 per cent followed by Victoria (31.7 per cent) and NSW (31 per cent).<\/p>\n Rawnsley said communities that migrated to Australia in large numbers following World War II were ageing; the median age of those born in Greece, Italy and Malta is in the 70s.<\/p>\n \u201cIn contrast, today\u2019s largest migrant communities are more likely to be in their 30s and 40s, with the exception of the English\u2011born population, which has a median age closer to 60,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The median age of those born in India was 36.1 years, China 39.9 years and Nepal 29.6 years.<\/p>\n People born in Italy and England had the largest decreases in their populations since 2015.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth groups had a median age of 60 or over \u2013 reflecting the high levels of migration to Australia from these countries after World War II,\u201d the bureau said.<\/p>\n The proportion of Australians born overseas fell to an all-time low of 9.8 per cent in 1947, but a post-war wave of migration meant the overseas-born population share rose steadily during the 1950s and 1960s.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Dancers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/7b9912c839aeb9af4890f6c9b8358adfeab4203d.jpeg\")
Dancers wait backstage to perform at a Diwali festival in Blacktown, in western Sydney. Australia\u2019s Indian-born community has reached 971,020.Steven Siewert<\/p>\n![\"Pragna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2e6c944f4fe29724196ba6d9381d3dd52c6d48ca.jpeg\")
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Matt Wade<\/a> is a senior economics writer at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 29, 2026 \u2014 8:00pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-638290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}