Australian immigration boosted by immigrants from the UK
July 30 2009 by Mark Johnstone
UK: greatest source of migrants to Australia
The UK is the greatest source of migrants to Australia, according to new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Currently, 60% of the population growth in Australia is from immigration, with thousands of foreigners applying for visas to live and work in Australia each year, tempted by its warm climate, great environment and relatively plentiful jobs in certain industry sectors.
The statistics show that around a quarter of the population was actually born outside of Australia, with 213,000 newcomers arriving between 2007 and 2008 alone. The Australian labour market has welcomed the newcomers as 60% were at a peak working age of 15-34 years.
A total of 1.2 million people who were born in the UK are now living and working in Australia, making it the greatest source of immigrants to Australia. Immigrants from New Zealand, India, China and Italy also made up a large proportion of the people moving to Australia in 2007/2008, although people from around 200 different countries moved to Australia during the period.
The most popular region to live for newcomers settling in Australia was New South Wales.
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