Census: India overtakes China, NZ as biggest country of birth

Australia is becoming an increasingly multicultural country with nearly half of all Australians saying they have a parent born overseas.

The family Singh: from left, Baljit Kaur, Satnam Singh, Ravinder Kaur, Saanjh Kaur, Ekasnoor Kaur, Tejinder Singh, Rajveer Kaur and Emaan Kaur. Picture: Arsineh Houspian

Nearly half of all Australians have a parent born overseas, while India has overtaken China and New Zealand to become the third most common country of birth behind Australia and England.

The latest census data showed Australia is becoming an increasingly multicultural country, with 48.2 per cent of the population having a parent born overseas.

The number of people who speak a second language at home has jumped by nearly 792,062 compared with 2016 – more than 5.5 million people now speak a second language.

After Australia and England, the largest increase in country of birth was India. An extra 217,963 people born in India are now Australian citizens compared with 2016, when there were 455,389 in total.

The second-biggest jump in country of birth was Nepal after India, with an extra 67,752 people counted since the last census in 2016. It means the population of Nepali-born people in Australia has more than doubled, and represents an increase of 123.7 per cent.

The last available data from 2016 reported that after England and New Zealand, the third biggest proportion of people living in Australia but born overseas was China with 509,555 extra people from that country counted that year.

In the latest census data, Eng­lish was the most common ancestry reported at 33 per cent, following Australian at 29 per cent, Irish at 9.5 per cent, Scottish at 8.6 per cent and Chinese at 5.5 per cent.

Other than English, Mandarin is the most common language used at home, with 685,274 ­people speaking it. It was followed by Arabic, spoken by 367,159 people.

Those speaking Punjabi reported the biggest increase, with an 80.4 per cent jump in the number of people speaking it at home compared with 2016.

One of those people is Tejinder Singh, who he left his home village in the north Indian state of Punjab 17 years ago to study hospitality in Melbourne.

Since moving to Australia, the 39-year-old has started a family, bought his first home and now owns his own construction business – something he said wouldn’t have been possible had he stayed in India.

“When I moved here, I came with one suitcase,” Mr Singh said.

“Since then, I worked, then I earned money and I was able to buy my own house in 15 years. But if I was back home, there were too many expenses and too many things going … I was not able to buy a single thing there in 15 years. That is the difference I feel here.”

Five years after moving here as a student and working in the hospitality industry, Mr Singh married his wife, Rajveer – who moved to Australia from Punjab in 2010.

Mr Singh said he did consider returning to India but when the couple decided to start a family, they decided to raise their children in Australia.

“The main reason for moving here is for a better future,” Mr Singh said. “I was planning to go back but I was thinking for the kids to give them a better future here. And the life is much, much better than back home.”

Mr Singh said he has always felt safe practising his religion in Melbourne and found his local community in Cranbourne South “very friendly and open-minded”.

The Singh family is of the Sikh faith and speak Punjabi at home, with daughters Ekasnoor, 11, and Emaan, 5, attending Punjabi language school at weekends.

Mr Singh, now an Australian citizen, said most people migrated from India for the same reason he did – a better future. “I haven’t heard from anybody that they’re not happy here.”