Loading
pop-up content starts
pop-up content ends

Australian citizenship statistics

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​More than 5.7 million people have become citizens since Australian citizenship was introduced in 1949.

Former nationality or citizenship

In 1949, during the inaugural year of the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948, Australian citizenship was granted to 2,493 people from just over 35 different nationalities. The top 5 nationalities (and number of grants) at that time according to the Australian Yearbook 1953, ABS were:

  • Italian (708)
  • Polish (597)
  • Greek (276)
  • German (225)
  • Yugoslav (80)

In 2021-22, a total of 167,232 people became Australian citizens by conferral, representing over 200 different nationalities.

The following table shows the number of people who were conferred as Australian citizens during​ 2021‑22​, ​​according to their former nationality.

​​​Number of people conferred Australian citizenship, by financial year and top 10 countries of nationality (1 July ​2021 ​to 30 June ​202​2)
Country of nationalityNo. of people
India30,160
United Kingdom
19,251
Philippines
11,156
New Zealand
6,254
Pakistan
6,247
Vietnam
6,171
China*
5,392
Iraq
5,114
South Africa
4,869
Afghanistan4,777
Other67,841
Total 167,232

*“China” denotes mainland China only and does not include the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.

​​