The Top Sending Countries of Immigrants in Australia, Canada, and the United States

Five Largest Foreign-Born Groups in Australia, 2006
(percent of the total foreign-born population)

Total foreign born: 4,416,000
Share of total population: 22%

Australia

• About 4.4 million foreign-born persons resided in Australia as of the country’s 2006 Population and Housing Census. They accounted for 22.2 percent of the total country population of 19.9 million. The foreign-born share did not change between 2001 and 2006.
• About one in every four migrants in Australia was from the United Kingdom.
• Immigrants from the top five countries of origin - the United Kingdom, New Zealand, China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan), Italy, and Vietnam - accounted for 45.1 percent of all of the foreign born in Australia.
• The immigrant populations of both Australia and the United States were dominated by a single foreign-born group: immigrants from the United Kingdom in Australia and immigrants from Mexico in the United States.
• China was the only country to appear among the five largest source countries of immigrants in Australia, Canada, and the United States.

Five Largest Foreign-Born Groups in Canada, 2006
(percent of the total foreign-born population)

Total foreign born: 6,187,000
Share of total population: 20%

Canada

• About 6.2 million foreign-born persons resided in Canada, according to the 2006 Canadian Census of Population. They accounted for 19.8 percent of the total country population of 31.2 million (compared to 18.4 percent in 2001).
• The proportion of the foreign born in Canada was exceeded by the foreign-born population in Australia (22.2 percent) but was higher than in the United States (12.5 percent in 2006 and 12.9 percent in 2010).
• About one in every 11 immigrants in Canada was from the United Kingdom.
• Immigrants from the top five countries of origin - the United Kingdom, China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan), India, Philippines, and Italy - accounted for 33.8 percent of all the foreign born in Canada.
• While immigrants from the United Kingdom represented the largest foreign-born group in Canada, the immigrant population of Canada was not dominated by a single group, unlike in Australia and the United States.
• The United Kingdom, China, and Italy were among the top five source countries for both Canada and Australia, while China, India, and the Philippines were among the five largest source countries for Canada and the United States.
• The United States was the sixth largest country of birth for immigrants residing in Canada in 2006, accounting for 4 percent of the total immigrant population of its northern neighbor.

Five Largest Foreign-Born Groups in the United States, 2010
(percent of the total foreign-born population)

Total foreign born: 39,956,000
Share of total population: 13%

United States

• Almost 40 million foreign-born persons resided in the United States, according to the US Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey. They accounted for 12.9 percent of the total country population of 309.3 million (compared to 12.5 percent in 2006 and 11.1 percent in 2000).
• Almost 30 percent of immigrants in the United States came from Mexico.
• Immigrants from the top five countries of origin - Mexico, India, the Philippines, China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan), and Vietnam - accounted for 45.3 percent of all of the foreign born in the United States.
• The immigrant population of the United States, like that of Australia, is dominated by a single foreign-born group: In the United States, the dominate group arrived from Mexico and in Australia, that group came from the United Kingdom.
• China, India, and the Philippines were among the five largest source countries for both Canada and the United States. About 2 percent of immigrants in the United States were born in Canada, while 4 percent of Canadian immigrants were US born.