8 things of interest about Australia’s overseas-born population

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released our annual update to Australia’s population by country of birth. This release gives us a detailed look at our country’s diverse population and where they were born.

Here are 8 facts you might not already know: 

• In 2025, Australia had 8.8 million residents who were born overseas, compared to 18.8 million people born in Australia. That’s 32 per cent of our overall Estimated Resident Population of 27.6 million.
• The proportion of overseas-born people in Australia is approaching the highest we have on record, which was 32.4 per cent in 1891.
• India, England, China, New Zealand and the Philippines are the top five most common countries of birth for those born overseas.
• India narrowly overtook England in 2025 to become the top overseas country of birth for the first time. Both populations were around 971,000 people.
• People born in India also recorded the largest increase since 2015 - 522,000 people.
• People born in Italy and England had the largest decreases in their populations since 2015. Both groups had a median age of 60 or over – reflecting the high levels of migration to Australia from these countries after World War II.
• The median age for Australia’s overseas-born population was 43, down from 46 in 2005. Comparatively, it was 35 for the Australian-born population, up from 33 in 2005.
• People born in Latvia were the oldest population group in Australia, with a median age of 80 years old. The youngest population group was people born in Qatar, with a median age of 15 years of age.