CANBERRA, April 30 (Xinhua) -- The number of Australians born overseas hit an all-time high in 2024 as the number born in China also reached a new record, according to official data.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Wednesday said that as of June 2024, 8.6 million people living in Australia were born overseas, up from the previous record of 8.2 million in 2023.

Of those 8.6 million people, it said that 700,120 were born in China, surpassing the previous peak of 661,000 set in 2019 after decreasing in 2020 and 2021 when Australia's borders were closed.

According to the ABS, 31.5 percent of the national population in 2024 was born overseas, up from 30.7 percent in 2023 and the highest proportion since 1891, when a record-high 32.4 percent of Australians were born overseas.

England, India and China were the most common countries of birth for Australians who were born overseas, the ABS said.

The proportion of Australians born in China and India increased from 2.0 and 1.8 percent, respectively, in 2014 to 2.6 and 3.4 percent in 2024.

In the same time period, the proportion of Australians born in England fell from 4.3 percent to 3.5 percent.

The ABS said that Italy fell out of Australia's top 10 countries of birth for the first time since 1901 in 2024. ■