Immigration in Australia 2026
Immigration has shaped Australia more than almost any other developed nation, transforming a country that operated a formal “White Australia” policy until 1973 into one where more than half the population now has at least one parent born overseas. This history sits at the center of an increasingly active public debate in 2026 about the pace and scale of migration, the country’s identity as an officially multicultural society, and questions — raised by some commentators and pushed back on by others — about whether Australia should be aiming for a more unified, single cultural identity rather than continuing its post-1973 multicultural model.
This guide compiles the latest Australia immigration statistics for 2026, covering net overseas migration trends, population growth, country-of-birth and ancestry data, language and religious diversity, and the full range of public opinion polling on immigration levels and multiculturalism itself. Because this topic sits at the heart of a genuine and ongoing policy and cultural debate, the figures below are presented from multiple credible sources across the spectrum of the discussion, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions about where Australia’s immigration settings and social cohesion currently stand.
Interesting Facts About Immigration in Australia 2026
| Interesting Fact | Data (2025-2026) |
|---|---|
| Net Overseas Migration (Year to June 2025) | 306,000 people, down from a record 538,000 in 2022-23 |
| Australia’s Total Population (31 December 2025) | 27,801,023, growing 1.5% annually |
| Share of Population Growth From Migration | ~73% (net overseas migration of 301,000 of 412,500 total annual growth) |
| Australians Born Overseas (2021 Census) | 27.6% (more than 7 million people) |
| Australians Who Are First or Second Generation Migrants | 51.5% — over half the population |
| Australians Speaking Only English at Home | 72% |
| Australians Identifying With European Ancestry | 57.2% |
| Australians Identifying With Asian Ancestry | 17.4% |
| Australians Reporting “No Religion” (2021 Census) | 38.9%, up from 15.5% in 2001 |
| Australians Who Believe Multiculturalism Has Been Good for the Country (2025) | 84% |
| Australians Who Believe Immigration Levels Are “Too High” (Range Across 2024-2025 Polls) | 41% to 59%, depending on the survey |
| Top Source Country for Migrant Arrivals (2024-25) | India |
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 2021 Census and Overseas Migration data; Scanlon Foundation Research Institute, Mapping Social Cohesion 2025; Australian National University; Lowy Institute, 2025-2026.
As a content writer analyzing this data, the clearest theme is a genuine and measurable divergence between two things that are often assumed to move together: attitudes toward multiculturalism as a value and attitudes toward the current scale of migration intake. A striking 84% of Australians told the Scanlon Foundation’s 2025 survey that multiculturalism has been good for the country, yet at the same time, multiple independent surveys conducted across 2024 and 2025 found that somewhere between 41% and 59% of Australians believe the actual number of migrants arriving each year is too high. This is not necessarily a contradiction — research suggests these concerns are driven substantially by housing affordability and cost-of-living pressures rather than opposition to cultural diversity itself, but the gap remains a defining feature of the current debate.
The second major theme is the sheer scale of demographic change already embedded in Australia’s population. With over half of all Australians now either born overseas or having a parent born overseas, and net overseas migration having added more people to the population over just the four years to September 2025 than at almost any point in the nation’s history, the empirical starting point for any “monoculture” debate is a country that has already become majority migrant-descended in a single generation — a fact that shapes how both sides of the current policy conversation frame their arguments.
Net Overseas Migration Statistics Australia 2026
| Period | Net Overseas Migration | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 (Record High) | 538,000 | Peak of the post-pandemic migration surge |
| 2023-24 | 429,000 to 430,000 | Down from the record year |
| 2024-25 | 306,000 | Down 29%, lowest since 2021 |
| Year to December 2025 (Latest Quarterly Data) | 300,960 | Broadly stable versus 2024-25 |
| 2025-26 (Federal Budget Forecast) | ~260,000 | Projected further decline |
| 2026-27 (Treasury Forecast) | ~225,000 | Still above the pre-COVID average of ~190,000 |
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Overseas Migration, 2024-25 financial year; Australian Treasury forecasts, 2025-2026.
Net overseas migration (NOM) — the official ABS measure of how many more people arrived in Australia than departed over a 12-month period — has fallen for two consecutive years, dropping from a record 538,000 in 2022-23 to 306,000 in 2024-25, a decline of 29%. This retreat from pandemic-recovery peaks reflects both fewer arrivals, particularly among international students and working holiday makers, and rising departures, including a doubling in exits by working holiday visa-holders as global labor markets reopened.
Despite this cooling trend, both the federal budget and Treasury project migration will continue to exceed pre-pandemic levels for the foreseeable future, forecasting 260,000 for 2025-26 and 225,000 for 2026-27, compared to a pre-COVID average of roughly 190,000. Notably, separate net permanent and long-term arrival figures — a related but methodologically distinct measure — hit a record 480,520 in 2025, up 8.1% on 2024, illustrating that different official migration metrics can tell somewhat different stories depending on which specific visa and travel-intention data they capture.
Population Growth and Migration’s Share of Growth Australia 2026
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total Australian Population (31 December 2025) | 27,801,023 |
| Annual Population Growth (2025) | 412,500 people (1.5%) |
| Natural Increase (Births Minus Deaths) | 111,500 |
| Net Overseas Migration Contribution | 301,000 |
| Share of Growth From Migration | ~73% |
| Fastest-Growing State/Territory | Western Australia (2.2%) |
| Slowest-Growing State/Territory | Tasmania (0.5%) |
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), National, State and Territory Population, December 2025.
Migration remains, by a wide margin, the dominant driver of Australia’s population growth, accounting for roughly 73% of the 412,500 people added to the national population in the year to 31 December 2025, compared to just 111,500 from natural increase (births minus deaths). This pattern has held consistently over recent years — over the four years to September 2025, migration contributed 78.2% of Australia’s total population growth of 2.02 million people, underscoring that the country’s demographic trajectory is now overwhelmingly shaped by immigration policy rather than birth rates.
Western Australia recorded the fastest population growth rate of any state or territory at 2.2%, driven by strong interstate and overseas migration tied to its resources sector, while Tasmania grew the slowest at just 0.5%. For anyone tracking Australia’s regional population trends in 2026, this uneven distribution reinforces that migration’s impact on infrastructure, housing, and services is far from evenly spread across the country, with resource-rich and major metropolitan states absorbing a disproportionate share of new arrivals.
Country of Birth and Ancestry Statistics Australia 2026
| Metric | Figure (2021 Census) |
|---|---|
| Australians Born Overseas | 27.6% (over 7 million people), up from 26% in 2016 |
| Top Country of Birth (Overseas) | England |
| Second Largest Country of Birth (Overseas) | India (overtook China and New Zealand) |
| Fastest-Growing Birthplace Group (2016-2021) | Nepal, up 124% |
| Top Ancestries | English (33.0%), Australian (29.9%), Irish (9.5%), Scottish (8.6%), Chinese (5.5%) |
| European Ancestry (Any) | 57.2% |
| Asian Ancestry (Any) | 17.4% |
| Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Population | 3.2% (812,728 people) |
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Cultural Diversity: Census, 2021; Snapshot of Australia, 2021.
The 2021 Census confirmed that more than 7 million Australians, or 27.6% of the population, were born overseas, with England remaining the single largest source country but India overtaking both China and New Zealand to become the second-largest, driven by an additional 220,000 India-born residents counted since 2016. Nepal posted the fastest growth of any birthplace group, more than doubling between 2016 and 2021, reflecting a significant shift in Australia’s migration patterns toward South and Central Asia over the past decade.
Despite this growing diversity, European ancestry remains the largest single ancestry grouping at 57.2% of all ancestry responses (noting respondents could nominate up to two ancestries), with the traditional English, Australian, Irish, and Scottish ancestries continuing to top the list. Asian ancestry, at 17.4%, has grown steadily but remains considerably smaller than European ancestry in aggregate — a data point frequently cited by different sides of the multiculturalism debate to support very different conclusions about how much Australia’s cultural composition has actually shifted.
Language and Religious Diversity Statistics Australia 2026
| Metric | Figure (2021 Census) |
|---|---|
| Population Speaking Only English at Home | 72% |
| Population Speaking a Language Other Than English at Home | Over 5.5 million (nearly 22%) |
| Most Common Non-English Language | Mandarin (2.7%), followed by Arabic, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Punjabi |
| Population With “No Religion” | 38.9%, up from 15.5% in 2001 |
| Population Identifying as Christian | 43.9%, down from 52.1% in 2016 |
| Largest Non-Christian Religions | Islam (3.2%), Hinduism (2.7%), Buddhism (2.4%) |
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Cultural Diversity: Census, 2021.
Despite Australia’s growing cultural diversity, English remains overwhelmingly dominant as a home language, spoken exclusively by 72% of the population, even as the number of residents speaking another language at home grew by nearly 800,000 people between 2016 and 2021 to reach over 5.5 million. Mandarin remains the most common non-English language, followed by Arabic, Vietnamese, Cantonese, and Punjabi, with Punjabi recording the fastest growth of any major language group, up over 80% since 2016.
On religion, the 2021 Census marked a historic milestone: for the first time, fewer than half of Australians (43.9%) identified as Christian, continuing a steep decline from 88% in 1966. Meanwhile, “no religion” climbed to 38.9% of the population, up from just 15.5% two decades earlier, while Islam and Hinduism were the fastest-growing religious groups, reflecting the changing composition of recent migration intakes. For observers of the monoculture versus multiculturalism debate, this data illustrates that religious and linguistic change in Australia has been substantial, even as English-language dominance in daily life has remained remarkably stable.
Public Attitudes Toward Multiculturalism in Australia 2026
| Survey Finding | Result |
|---|---|
| Agree Multiculturalism Has Been Good for Australia (Scanlon 2025) | 84% |
| Report Being Happy or Very Happy (Scanlon 2025) | 79% |
| Believe Immigrants Take Jobs Away (Scanlon 2025) | 48% |
| Support Discriminatory Immigration Policies Based on Race/Religion (2018-2023 Range) | Over 15% |
| Believe Social Cohesion Remained Stable Since 2023 (Scanlon 2025) | Confirmed stable across key indicators |
Source: Scanlon Foundation Research Institute, Mapping Social Cohesion 2025, in partnership with the Australian National University.
The Scanlon Foundation’s Mapping Social Cohesion 2025 survey, Australia’s longest-running and most detailed study of attitudes toward diversity and immigration, found that 84% of Australians agree multiculturalism has been good for the country, a figure that has remained remarkably resilient despite economic pressures. The same survey found broader social cohesion indicators held steady compared to 2023 and 2024, with researchers pointing to strong neighbourhood-level connections as a key factor buffering the national mood against economic and global stresses.
At the same time, the survey found that 48% of respondents believe immigrants take jobs away from Australian workers, a concern researchers link closely to economic anxiety over housing and cost-of-living pressures rather than opposition to cultural diversity itself. This distinction — support for multiculturalism as a value remaining high even as economic concerns tied to migration levels grow — is central to understanding the current Australian debate, and explains why survey results can appear to show both strong acceptance of diversity and rising unease about immigration volume within the very same population.
Public Opinion on Immigration Levels in Australia 2026
| Survey (Date) | Share Saying Immigration Is “Too High” |
|---|---|
| Scanlon Foundation (2024) | 49% |
| Australian National University Survey (February 2025) | 52.9% |
| ABC Vote Compass (2025, ~340,000 respondents) | 49% wanted fewer immigrants; 16% wanted more |
| Australian Institute of Population Research, Monash (December 2023) | 74% preferred lower net migration |
| Scanlon Foundation (2019, For Historical Comparison) | 41% |
Source: Scanlon Foundation Research Institute; Australian National University; ABC Vote Compass; Australian Institute of Population Research, Monash University, 2023-2025.
Public opinion polling on immigration levels specifically — as distinct from attitudes toward multiculturalism as a concept — shows consistently that a substantial share, and in several surveys a clear majority, of Australians currently believe migration intake is too high. The Australian National University’s February 2025 survey of over 5,000 people found 52.9% held this view, while the long-running Scanlon Foundation series recorded a jump from 41% in 2019 to 49% in 2024, reflecting genuine movement in public sentiment over the post-pandemic migration surge.
Researchers across multiple institutions consistently attribute this rising concern primarily to housing affordability and infrastructure strain rather than to opposition to cultural diversity, noting that respondents who feel economically secure are considerably more likely to support current or higher migration levels than those experiencing financial stress. This body of survey data represents one of the most direct empirical windows into Australia’s live immigration policy debate heading into the remainder of 2026, with both major political parties responding to this sentiment through proposed changes to migration settings.
Migration Program Composition Statistics Australia 2026
| Category | Detail |
|---|---|
| Top 5 Countries of Birth for Migrant Arrivals (2024-25) | India, China, United Kingdom, Australia (returning), New Zealand |
| Largest Contributing Region (2024-25) | Southern and Central Asia (26% of arrivals) |
| Largest Contributing Region (2014-15, For Comparison) | North-East Asia (21% of arrivals) |
| Total Temporary Visa Holders in Australia | Approximately 3 million, including over 1 million student visa holders |
| Median Age of Migrant Arrivals | 26 years |
| Median Age of Migrant Departures | 30 years |
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Overseas Migration, 2024-25 financial year; Sustainable Population Australia analysis of ABS data.
The composition of Australia’s migration intake has shifted substantially over the past decade, with Southern and Central Asia now supplying 26% of all migrant arrivals, up from just 21% a decade earlier when North-East Asia was the largest contributing region. This shift is driven heavily by India’s rise to become the top source country for arrivals in recent years, alongside strong growth from Nepal, Pakistan, and Iraq.
Temporary visa holders make up a significant and growing share of Australia’s migrant population, with an estimated 3 million people currently on temporary visas, including over 1 million international student visa holders — a cohort that critics argue places outsized pressure on housing and services relative to their economic contribution, while supporters point to the substantial revenue international education generates for Australian universities and the broader economy. The relatively young median age of migrant arrivals (26 years) compared to departures (30 years) also means migration continues to meaningfully offset the ageing of Australia’s broader population, a demographic benefit frequently cited in the immigration debate independent of cultural or social considerations.
Historical Context: From White Australia Policy to Multiculturalism 2026
| Milestone | Year |
|---|---|
| White Australia Policy Introduced | 1901, at Federation |
| Policy Gradually Relaxed | Post-World War II, through the 1950s-60s |
| White Australia Policy Formally Abolished | 1973 |
| Official Multiculturalism Policy Adopted | Following 1973 abolition |
| Total Migrants Since 1945 | Over 7 million people |
| Proportion of Population Born Overseas, 1911 Census (For Comparison) | 18% |
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS); National Archives of Australia, historical immigration policy records.
Understanding today’s immigration debate in Australia requires grasping just how dramatically the country’s approach has changed within living memory. From Federation in 1901 until its formal abolition in 1973, Australia operated the White Australia Policy, explicitly restricting immigration from non-European countries. Since abolition, Australia has pursued an official policy of multiculturalism, welcoming over 7 million migrants since 1945 and progressively diversifying its migrant intake toward Asia, the Middle East, and beyond.
This history is directly relevant to current debates, since the overseas-born share of the population (27.6% in 2021) is actually not far removed from the 18% recorded in Australia’s very first Census in 1911 — a period when nearly all migrants were of British or European origin under different immigration norms of the time. What has changed far more dramatically than the overall proportion of overseas-born residents is the countries of origin those residents come from, a distinction that sits at the heart of how different commentators frame the “monoculture versus multiculturalism” debate heading into the rest of 2026.
Disclaimer: The data research report we present here is based on information found from various sources. We are not liable for any financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that may result from the use of the information herein. We acknowledge that though we try to report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute facts of everything that has been represented.
