The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released the annual update to Australia’s population by country of birth.
With data for 2024 now available, here are nine facts about Australia’s overseas-born population:
- In 2024, 31.5 per cent of Australia’s estimated resident population were born overseas, up from 30.7 per cent in 2023 (an increase of 396,000 people).
- The overseas-born population in Australia has grown for the third year in a row, following a decrease in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated international border closures.
- In 2024, almost every country in the world was represented in Australia’s overseas-born population.
- The top five most common countries of birth for those not born in Australia were England, India, China, New Zealand and the Philippines.
- The largest increases in Australia’s overseas-born population over the 10 years to 2024, were people born in India, China, the Philippines and Nepal.
- Italy has dropped out of Australia’s top 10 countries of birth for the first time since 1901.
- The median age for Australia’s overseas-born population decreased from 46 years of age in 2004 to 43 in 2024. The median age for the Australian-born population increased from 32 years of age in 2004 to 35 in 2024.
- In 2024, those born in Latvia had the highest median age in Australia’s population, at 80 years of age. Those born in Qatar had the lowest (14 years of age).
- Australia’s population ranked eighth in the world for the number of overseas-born (with 8.6 million in 2024 based on data published by the ABS and the United Nations). The USA had the largest population of international migrants (52.4 million people born outside the USA).
