A government report showcases that India has evolved into a leading provider of permanent migrants to Australia for the first time,  preceding China.

Australia's Migration Trends study revealed that the booming importance of Asia to Australia, seven of the top 10 source countries during 2011-2012 were almost from India.

Immigration Minister Brendan O’Connor declared that between 1996-2011, Australia’s overseas-born population increased by more than 40 percent to reach six million.

The population was almost more than double the rate for the Australian-born population and it was crucial in addressing the demographic challenges of growing population.

The government’s strong importance on skilled migration gives prominance to this sort of growth, which is crucial to ensure depth in Australia’s labour force.

Permanent migrants from India were recorded as 29,018 in 2011/12, and elevated up to 12.7 percent on the previous year.

China was positioned number two due to drop down in visa places from 29,546 to 25,509.

At the same time British arrivals increased to 25,273 from 23,931 with South Africa and the Philippines,  five  and four respectively.

The analysis declared that over the past 15 years the number of Indian-born Australian residents raised four-fold while Chinese-born residents tripled.

Nevertheless, Britain continues to be the main birthplace of migrants, with 1.18 million calling Down Under home from a total population of 23 million.

New Zealand stands the second biggest (564,920) followed by China (391,060).

(AW:Chitra)