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Indians in Australia
There is a rapidly growing Indian community in Australia. According to the latest census estimates, about 9,76,000 in Australia trace Indian ancestry. Indian diaspora is the second largest and fastest growing diaspora in Australia. Indian students numbering 1,22,391 (September 2023) form the second-largest cohort of foreign-born students in Australia.
Indians make up around 3% of the Australian population and as per the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021), the Total Indian-born population in Australia is 673,352, and people with Indian Ancestry stand at 783,958.
The approximate population of Indians in Australia as of 2024 is 1 million or 10 Lakh
Indo-Australian History
In the early 1800s, Indians were sent to Australia as convict laborers and later settled in the country. During the 19th century, many Sikhs and Muslims from Punjab migrated to the northern coast of New South Wales, and Indians from Punjab and North West Frontier Province ran the ‘camel trains’. Indians also participated in the Victorian gold rush and worked on banana plantations in Southern Queensland, owning their own plantations with hard work and enterprise.
In the early 1900s, there were around 6,500 to 7,000 Indians in Australia. After World War II, Anglo-Indians migrated to Australia. In 1966, Indian professionals started arriving, and software professionals came in the 1980s. Today, there are Indian organizations in all major cities, and Indian language programs, publications, and schools are also available..
read about the Population of Overseas Indians
At the 2021 census, the states with the largest number of people nominating Indian ancestry were: New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, and South Australia.
States | Pop. 2021 |
New South Wales | 350,770 |
Victoria | 250,103 |
Queensland | 93,648 |
Western Australia | 77,357 |
South Australia | 43,598 |
Tasmania | 4000 |
Australian Capital Territory | 16000 |
Northern Territory | 5000 |
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021)
Indian population in Australian Cities
City | Population |
Melbourne | 242,635 |
Sydney | 230,000 |
Perth | 75,000 |
Brisbane | 65,000 |
Adelaide | 35,000 |
Canberra | 8,000 |
Darwin | 5,000 |
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021)
Religion of Indian population in Australia
According to the 2021 census, 684,002 people follow Hinduism in Australia, out of which 80-85% are people of Indian Origin. The majority of Indian Australians are Hindus with about 444,000 individuals who profess Hinduism.
The majority of Australian Hindus live along the Eastern Coast of Australia, mainly in the cities of Melbourne and Sydney. About 39% of Hindus lived in Greater Sydney, 29% in Greater Melbourne, and 8% each in Greater Brisbane and Greater Perth. The states and territories with the highest proportion of Hindus are the Australian Capital Territory (2.57%) and New South Wales (2.43%), whereas those with the lowest are Queensland (0.98%) and Tasmania (0.50%)
Sikhs in Australia’s population numbered 210,400 individuals, of whom 39% live in Greater Melbourne, 21% in Greater Sydney, and 10% in Greater Brisbane. The states and territories with the highest proportion of Sikhs are Victoria (0.89%) and the Australian Capital Territory (0.54%), whereas those with the lowest are the Northern Territory (0.28%) and Tasmania (0.10%).
There are a minority of Indian Australians who also follow Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, and others.
read about religion in Australia
Australian Population by Indian Languages
According to the Australian Census 2021, approx 1 million people in Australia speak Indian (Indo-Aryan) Languages at home. Punjabi is the most spoken Indian language followed by Hindi and Urdu.
Indian Languages | Speakers |
Punjabi | 239,033 |
Hindi | 197,132 |
Urdu | 111,873 |
Tamil | 95,404 |
Gujarati | 81,334 |
Malayalam | 78,738 |
Bengali | 70,116 |
Others | 38,200 |
Total | 911,830 |
*necessarily all speakers of Indian Languages are from India. Other South Asians countries also are speakers of Indian Languages. People from Pakistan speak Punjabi & Urdu and people; Bangladeshi speak Bengali and Urdu and Bengali; Srilankans and Tamils speak Tamil.