India has narrowly overtaken England as Australia’s largest estimated foreign-born resident group for the first time.
New data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Wednesday revealed Indian-born people numbered an estimated 971,020 as at June 30, 2025.
English-born residents were estimated to number 970,950 in June last year.
The year prior, English-born residents led those born in India 963,560 to 916,330 respectively.
The Indian-born population has seen the largest increase in the population since 2015, while those born in England have slowly declined.
Historical population data records show England had consistently formed the largest single cohort of foreign-born residents at any one time, at least since 1901.
As of June 2025, the ABS estimated some 731,540 Chinese-born migrants were residing in Australia.
They made up the second-fastest growing population group.
Kiwis remained in fourth place, comprising 2.3 per cent of the estimated resident population – 637,680.
The next largest foreign-born populations were the Philippines, Vietnam, South Africa, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Malaysia in descending order.
The data showed those born and living in Australia numbered 18.8 million in 2025.
At the same reporting period, Australia homed 8.8 million foreign-born resident – about 32 per cent of the total Estimated Resident Population of 27.6 million.
The proportion of overseas-born people in Australia has been approaching the highest on record, which was 32.4 per cent in 1891.
The median age for Australia’s overseas-born population was 43, marginally down from 46 years in 2005.
“The median age of those born overseas has fluctuated over time, peaking at a median of 46 years in 2002 and decreasing to 44 years in 2019,” the ABS said in its release on Wednesday.
“In 2021, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the decrease in younger people (such as international students) migrating to Australia, the median age of the overseas-born population increased to 45 years.”
For the Australian-born population the median age was 35, up from 33 in 2005.
People born in Italy and England had the largest decreases in their populations since 2015.
Both groups had median ages over 60, reflecting the high levels of migration to Australia from these countries after World War II, the ABS noted.
The lowest median aged group of residents was those from Qatar.
Australia ranks eighth internationally for foreign-born residents, according to global estimates.
The USA had the most international migrants in its population in 2024, with 52.4 million migrants accounting for 15 per cent of the country’s population.
Germany was the second-highest.
16.8 million people born overseas resided in the nation and accounted for 19.8 per cent of its population.
Saudi Arabia ranked third, with 13.7 million migrants comprising 31.5 per cent of its total population in 2024.