India the major source of immigrants to Australia

India has emerged as the primary source of immigrants coming to Australia, data from the federal government says.

Indian dancer Manaswani performs with the Raminder Khurana group during Diwali celebrations at Federation Square in Melbourne Source: AAP

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India has emerged as the dominant source of immigrants in recent years, despite a drop in Indian migrant numbers since 2012-13.

Statistics on Australia’s migration orogram, released by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, show Australia received 189,097 immigrants in the 2014-15 year.

Those immigrants include people who were accepted under the family, skill and special eligibility streams. The migration program does not include refugees.

The standout country of origin for people in the program was India, with 34,874 people in 2014-15, followed closely by China.

While India is the leader, the number of Indian immigrants is down on 2012-13, when total numbers of Indian immigrants were 40,051.

In 2010-11, India was behind China and the United Kingdom for numbers of immigrants.

The number of people immigrating in Australia's migration program has remained steady since 2012-13, when the planned immigration level was set at 190,000. That level has not changed since then.