7.3 million migrants call Australia home

While there are many who wish to fight the diversity in Australia, who wish to fan hate and encourage violence against ethnic minorities, the reality is Australia truly is a nation of migrants and is better for it. In the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics, the figures show that there were over 7 million migrants living in Australia in 2018.

Australian Bureau of Statistics Assistant Director of Migration Statistics Neil Scott said new figures showed that in 2018 just over 29 per cent of Australia’s resident population were born overseas.

“Australia’s multicultural society is made up of migrants born in every country around the world. Although almost 18 million Australians were born here, our society is continuing to become more culturally diverse over time”, Mr Scott said. 

In the year to 30 June 2018, 526,000 people arrived to live in Australia, while 289,000 people left Australia to live overseas. 

Of those migrant arrivals, 62 per cent were temporary visa holders including 30 per cent who were international students. 

There were 30,000 New Zealand citizens who moved to Australia to live however, in the same year, 23,000 New Zealanders left Australia to live overseas.

In addition, in 2017-18 there were 77,000 Australian citizens who returned to Australia after living overseas but in the same year there were nearly 91,000 who decided to emigrate.

Australia’s population by country of birth – 2018
Country of birth (a)	no.	% (b)
England	992 000	4.0
China	651 000	2.6
India	592 000	2.4
New Zealand	568 000	2.3
Philippines	278 000	1.1
Vietnam	256 000	1.0
South Africa	189 000	0.8
Italy	187 000	0.7
Malaysia	174 000	0.7
Scotland	135 000	0.5
All overseas-born	7 343 000	29.4
Australian-born	17 650 000	70.6

(a) With top 10 overseas-born countries listed in order for 2018

(b) Proportion of the total population of Australia.