Australia’s overseas-born population takes a hit during Covid pandemic

The proportion of the overseas-born population living in Australia has dropped for the first time in two decades.

The overseas-born population of Australia is just under 30 per cent

Australia’s overseas-born population has fallen because of restrictions on international movement during the Covid-19 pandemic, but still sits at almost three in 10 people.

New Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveals 29.1 per cent of the nation’s population were born overseas in 2021, a fall from 29.8 per cent in 2020.

The total number of migrants in Australia fell from 7.7 million people in 2020 to 7.5 million last year, the ABS found. And fewer Australian-born people left the country in 2021.

This is the first decrease in the proportion of Australia’s overseas-born population since 2000.

“The decrease reflected reduced overseas migration in and out of Australia, given Covid-19 travel restrictions,” ABS head of migration statistics Jenny Dobak said.

 

“The travel and migration intentions of many people changed due to the pandemic, including those migrating to work or study.

“In the first year of the pandemic, there were fewer people born overseas migrating to Australia, as well as fewer people born in Australia departing to live overseas.”

England remains the birthplace of the largest group of ­overseas-born living in Australia, but the total number of 967,000 has declined from just over a million as recently as five years ago.

India (710,000) and China (595,000) are the next highest countries of birth, and while both recorded annual decreases between 2020 and 2021, they had significantly increased over the past decade.

The population of Indian-born people in Australia was 337,000 in 2011, representing 1.1 per cent of the total population. By 2021, it had reached 710,000 or 2.8 per cent of the total.

The number of Chinese-born people in Australia increased from 387,000 in 2011 (1.7 per cent of the population) to 595,000 (2.3 per cent).

The Philippines is another big mover, adding 118,000 people to the Australian population since 2011, taking its total to 310,000 and putting it in fifth place behind New Zealand (560,000).

 

After being affected by the two World Wars and the Great Depression, migration numbers in Australia have rapidly risen in the post-war period, with the proportion of overseas-born up from its lowest point of 10 per cent in 1947 to almost 30 per cent now.

Australia ranks ninth in the world in terms of the number of overseas-born in its population, with the US and Germany ranked first and second.

Covid has had a significant impact on the demographic profile of the overseas-born population. The decrease in younger people such as international students arriving into the country in the past two years has seen the median age of overseas born increase from 43 years in 2019 to 45 years in 2021.

For Indian-born, the median age is 36, and Chinese-born 40, the ABS data shows.