Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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Major age groups and the overseas-born

At 30 June 2009, as shown in Table 5.7, the majority (76%) of all overseas-born Australian residents were of working age (15-64 years). In comparison, the proportion of overseas-born residents aged 65 years and older and 0-14 years was 18% and 6% respectively.

The overseas-born population from Asia, America and Africa had a proportionally larger young (aged 0-14 years) and working age population compared to those from Europe. Among the regions, Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest proportion aged 0-14 years (13%), followed by Oceania and Antarctica (excl. Aust.) (10%), the Americas (9%), North Africa and the Middle East and Southern and Central Asia (8% each) and South-East Asia (6%). The overseas-born population of Southern and Eastern Europe had the highest proportion (41%) in the resident population who were aged 65 years and over, followed by North-West Europe (28%).

5.7 Estimated resident population, Country of birth and age group - 30 June 2009(a)
	POPULATION			PROPORTION
	0-14	15-64	65 and over	0-14	15-64	65 and over
Region of birth	no.	no.	no.	%	%	%
Oceania and Antarctica (excl. Aust.)	64 611	550 409	49 202	9.7	82.9	7.4
North-West Europe	71 772	1 075 493	437 811	4.5	67.9	27.6
Southern and Eastern Europe	10 241	486 168	339 142	1.2	58.2	40.6
North Africa and Middle East	26 286	265 073	39 081	8.0	80.2	11.8
South-East Asia	46 130	654 164	51 879	6.1	87.0	6.9
North-East Asia	31 517	548 029	45 549	5.0	87.7	7.3
Southern and Central Asia	37 759	433 398	33 064	7.5	86.0	6.6
Americas	20 918	199 963	20 186	8.7	82.9	8.4
Sub-Saharan Africa	35 618	222 410	20 534	12.8	79.8	7.4
Total overseas-born	344 852	4 435 107	1 036 448	5.9	76.3	17.8
Total Australia-born	3 844 362	10 416 033	1 878 454	23.8	64.5	11.6
Total	4 189 214	14 851 140	2 914 902	19.1	67.6	13.3
(a) Estimates for 2008-09 are preliminary - see paragraphs 9-10 of the Explanatory Notes.

At 30 June 2009, of the top 50 countries of birth, Nepal-born, Taiwan-born and Bangladesh-born residents had the highest proportion (96%, 92% and 92% respectively) of all overseas-born residents aged 15-64 years. Following closely behind were those persons born in Hong Kong and Vietnam (90% each). The top five countries of birth with the highest proportion of their populations aged 65 years and older were: Italy (55%); Greece (52%); Hungary (51%); Austria (42%); and the Netherlands (41%). Among the overseas-born residents, Sudan-born had the highest proportion (21%) of residents aged 0-14 years, followed by the United States of America (16%), Afghanistan (14%), South Africa and Singapore (13% each), and Pakistan and Zimbabwe (12% each).