2022 was a bumper year for people moving to Australia’s shores, new data has revealed.
As of June 30 last year, nearly a third of Australia’s population – 29.5 per cent – was born overseas, according to a new set of migration data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The data shows the country’s overseas-born population grew by 155,000 people between June 2021 and June 2022.
The number of people born in England has been steadily declining since reaching a peak of more than a million in 2013.
Meanwhile, the number of people born in India (754,000) and New Zealand (586,000) has reached new highs since their previous respective peaks in 2020 and 2013.
The fastest-growing migrant group in the last decade was people born in India, which grew by 398,000 since 2012. People born in China followed (191,000), with those born in Nepal making the third-fastest growing birthplace group (120,000).
The median age of the Australian-born population continued to increase, reaching 35 years in 2022, whereas for the overseas-born population it was 45 years. However, this varied considerably depending on the country of birth.
“In 2022, of the top 10 countries of birth of the overseas-born population, the migrant group with the oldest median age was from Italy at 73 years, and the group with the youngest median age came from Nepal, at 29 years. This reflects the changing source countries of Australia’s migrants over many decades,” Ms Dobak said.
However, the number of people born overseas last was still slightly less than in 2020, when 29.9 per cent of Australians were born overseas.
Jenny Dobak, the ABS’ head of migration statistics, confirmed the spike said last year saw Australia’s number of overseas-born residents increase by 2.1 per cent.
“Western Australia had the highest proportion born overseas at 34 per cent, while Tasmania had the lowest at 16 per cent, in 2021,” she said.
England held its place as the largest country of birth for Australians with 961,000 migrants – a record it has held since it colonised Australia.
Those born in India were the second largest group of people born overseas, with 753,000 migrants in 2022.
Meanwhile, people born in China made up the third-largest share of overseas-born Australians at 597,000. According to the 2022 data, that number actually decreased last year, after reaching a peak in 2019.
Together, those three countries accounted for over one-third of all the migrants living in Australia last year.
New Zealand, the Philippines, Vietnam, South Africa, Italy and Nepal rounded out the top ten.
Overseas-born population over the years
According to the first country-wide census in 1891, 32 per cent of the population were born overseas, reflecting high levels of immigration in preceding years.
The proportion fell to its lowest level of 10 per cent in 1947 – mainly due to lower levels of migration during World War I, the Great Depression and World War II. https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/3yBnL/1/
The proportion then rose rapidly as a result of higher levels of post-war migration.
Since then, there has been a steady increase in the overseas-born population until 2021.
In 2021, the number and proportion of migrants declined.
This has been attributed to the COVID-19 travel restrictions and the resulting impact on overseas migration, both to and from Australia.
There was a decrease in arrivals of people born overseas immigrating to Australia, as well as a decrease of people born in Australia departing to live overseas.
This set of figures all come from data collected between June 2021, and June 2022.
Stay on correct side of the road, and the law
In other recent population news, Australia’s population hit 26.5 million people in March 2023, thanks to a post-COVID-19 pandemic migration boom, according to the (ABS).
The nation’s population grew by 2.2 per cent in the 12 months to March 2023, with most of this (81 per cent) due to an influx of migrants.
A total of 681,000 people migrated to Australia – more than double the number in the previous year – after all major pandemic-related border restrictions ended in February 2022.
