Top News

India becomes Australia's largest foreign-born group, surpassing England
30 Apr 2026

India has officially become Australia's largest source of overseas-born residents for the first time.

According to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), India has now replaced England as the largest source of overseas-born residents.

As of June 30, 2025, there were an estimated 971,020 Indian-born residents in Australia. This is a marginal increase over the English-born population, which stood at 970,950 during the same period.

Fastest-growing cohort since 2015
Population shift

The data also shows that the Indian-born population has been the fastest-growing cohort since 2015. Meanwhile, the number of English-born residents has started to decline.

Historically, England had always been Australia's largest foreign-born group since at least 1901.

This demographic shift marks a major change in Australia's national identity and increasing integration with Asia.

Top 4 overseas-born communities
Other communities

After India and England, China comes third as the largest source of overseas-born residents in Australia, with 731,540 people.

New Zealand is fourth with a population of 637,680 people or about 2.3% of Australia's total population.

Other major overseas-born communities include the Philippines, Vietnam, South Africa, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

Foreign-born population nears all-time high
Population statistics

Overall, the total estimated resident population of Australia has reached 27.6 million, with 8.8 million people born overseas.

That's 32% of the overall Estimated Resident Population of 27.6 million.

The median age for those born in Australia is now 35 years old, while it stands at a much older median age of 43 for overseas-born residents.