The official figures behind the country walk2talk walks through, and a short take on what they mean.
32.0%
of everyone living in Australia was born overseas as of 30 June 2025 — 8.8 million people, and the highest share on record since 1891 — according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. That figure has climbed from 29.5% in 2022, as international arrivals recovered after the pandemic.
In 2025, India overtook England as the largest group of overseas-born residents for the first time on record — both close to 971,000 people. China, New Zealand and the Philippines round out the top five. People born in India also recorded the largest increase of any birthplace group since 2015.
Source: Australian Bureau of StatisticsNet overseas migration was 306,000 in the year to June 2025 — down from 429,000 the year before, and well below the financial-year record of 538,000 set in 2022–23. Migrant arrivals totalled 568,000, roughly two in three of them on temporary visas, and the single largest group — 157,000 people — arrived on student visas.
Source: Australian Bureau of StatisticsNumbers like these describe scale, not people. They don't say which of those 568,000 arrivals is still looking for their first Australian job, or which one just found a favourite café, or which one hasn't told their family back home how hard the first year actually was. That gap — between the statistic and the story — is roughly what walk2talk exists to close, one walk at a time. It's also why the site links directly to the ABS releases above, rather than just quoting a number: the full picture is genuinely worth reading, and it changes every year.
Read more in the journalIf your story is part of one of these statistics, Émile would like to hear it.
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