India is set to eclipse the UK as the leading source of migrants settling in Australia, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The new data shows that while the UK remains the leading country of origin for overseas-born Australians, the number is trending down, while at the same time, the number of migrants from India is increasing.

The ABS data also shows the overseas-born population in Australia has grown for the third year in a row.

The top five most common countries of birth for those not born in Australia were England, India, China, New Zealand and the Philippines.

In 2024, almost every country in the world was represented in Australia’s overseas-born population, the data showed.

The ABS annual data on migration shows that 8.58 million people living in Australia were born overseas, representing 31.5 per cent of Australia’s total population.

This is an increase from 30.7 per cent in 2023.

A key driver behind this growth is a significant increase in the number of Indian-born people calling Australia home, with 916,330 Indian-born migrants recorded as of June 2024.

The percentage of Indian-born people living in Australia rose from 1.8 per cent in 2014 to 3.4 per cent in 2024. The number of people from English fell from 4.3 per cent to 3.5 per cent over the same period.

The percentage of people from China settling in Australia rose from two per cent in 2014 to 2.6 per cent in 2024.

According to the United Nations, 304 million people worldwide are living outside the countries where they were born. This accounts for approximately 3.7 per cent of the global population.

Meanwhile, two leading experts on migration policy have called for comprehensive and evidence-based migration and population policies to underpin both Australia’s economy and social cohesion.

Professor Alan Gamlen, the director of the ANU Migration Hub, says migration can continue to be a transformative benefit for Australia if it can look past the myths to develop policy that will pay off.

“Migration is a defining issue of the 21st century, shaping economies, societies, and political landscapes worldwide,” he said.

Meanwhile, former immigration official Dr Abul Rizvi says if he were immigration minister, he would develop a population plan.

“If there is one thing politicians should have learnt in the last three years, it is that Australians expect them to manage long-term net migration and thus our rate of population growth,” Dr Rizvi said.

“That might seem like a statement of the obvious but neither the Coalition Government (before COVID when international borders were closed) nor the Labor Government have been prepared to determine a long-term net migration target; to publicly explain the rationale underlying that target; and to put in place an administrative framework with a single responsible minister to manage things to reach that target,” he said.

The pair, writing in the policy journal ‘Pearls and Irritations’, both say cohesive population and migration policies are key to Australia’s future.