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 2013, 27.7% of the estimated resident population (ERP) was born overseas (6.4 million people). This was an increase from 30 June 2012, when 27.3% of the ERP was born overseas (6.2 million people). In 2003, ten years earlier, 23.6% of the ERP were born overseas (4.7 million people).

Persons born in the UK continued to be the largest group of overseas-born residents, accounting for 5.3% of Australia's total population at 30 June 2013. This was followed by persons born in New Zealand (2.6%), China (1.8%), India (1.6%) and Vietnam (0.9%).

Over the last 10 years, the proportion of the Australian population who were born in the United Kingdom decreased from 5.7% in 2003 to 5.3% in 2013. Conversely, the proportions increased for people born in New Zealand (from 2.1% to 2.6%), China (from 1.0% to 1.8%) and India (from 0.6% to 1.6%).

In terms of Australia's population growth, for the top 50 countries of birth (excluding Australia) at 30 June 2013, persons born in Nepal had the highest rate of increase between 2003 and 2013 with an average annual growth rate of 26.3%. However, this growth began from a small base of 3,000 persons at 30 June 2003. The second fastest increase over this period was in the number of persons born in India (12.0% per year on average), followed by those born in Pakistan (11.4%), Bangladesh (10.9%) and Sudan (9.2%). Of the top 50 countries of birth, the number of persons born in Serbia decreased the most, with an average annual decrease of 3.1%, followed by Hungary with an annual decrease of 1.3%.

This section contains the following subsection :

State and Territory Composition of Country of Birth

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