AUSTRALIA'S POPULATION BY COUNTRY OF BIRTH

The cultural and linguistic diversity of Australia's resident population has been reshaped over many years by migration. Historically, more people immigrate to, than emigrate from, Australia. At 30 June 2014, 28.1% of the estimated resident population (ERP) was born overseas (6.6 million people). This was an increase from 30 June 2013, when 27.7% of the population was born overseas (6.4 million people). In 2004, ten years earlier, 23.8% of the population was born overseas (4.8 million people).


Persons born in the United Kingdom continued to be the largest group of overseas-born residents, accounting for 5.2% of Australia's total population at 30 June 2014. This was followed by persons born in New Zealand (2.6%), China (1.9%), India (1.7%) and the Philippines and Vietnam (each 1.0%).


Over the last 10 years, the proportion of the Australian population who were born in the United Kingdom decreased from 5.6% in 2004 to 5.2% in 2014. Conversely, the proportions increased for people born in New Zealand (from 2.1% to 2.6%), China (from 1.0% to 1.9%) and India (from 0.7% to 1.7%).

In terms of Australia's population growth, for the top 50 countries of birth (excluding Australia) at 30 June 2014, persons born in Nepal had the highest rate of increase between 2004 and 2014 with an average annual growth rate of 27.0%. However, this growth began from a small base of 3,400 persons at 30 June 2004. The second fastest increase over this period was in the number of persons born in Brazil (12.6% per year on average), followed by those born in Pakistan (12.5%), India (11.6%) and Bangladesh (10.4%). Of the top 50 countries of birth, the number of persons born in Serbia decreased the most, with an average annual decrease of 2.3%, followed by persons born in Poland (1.2%).