South Australia sees a jump in the proportion of people born overseas

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South Australia sees a jump in the proportion of people born overseas

Since the 1990s, high school teacher Veena Madan has been living in South Australia and moved with her husband and two young daughters to India.

She was lured by the idea of living in another country, finding greener pastures. She battled homesickness and the loss of her husband but decided to stay in Adelaide to raise her daughters, who have since forged successful careers in the medical profession.

I owe a lot to Australia for that. "I'm so proud of the decision that I made to stay back on my own with the two girls," Madan said.

She is certainly not alone in choosing to call South Australia home.

The proportion of people living in South Australia who were born overseas has increased with a big jump from India, according to the latest census.

I feel like I'm so lucky to have a chance to meet all kinds of communities and to teach all kinds of communities. It's just changed. Last year, 44,881 people born in India lived in South Australia, an increase from 27,592 recorded in the last census in 2016. Australia is seeing a similar picture.

People from India account for 2.5 per cent of the state's population, the second-most common overseas country of birth behind England at 5.3 per cent. I can see so many Indian children in my school system. In aged care, hospitality, in everything Indians are doing, whether it's driving trucks or taxis, just about every job, Mrs Madan said.

The proportion of people born overseas has increased to 24.1 per cent, up from 22.9 per cent in the last census.

Today, 1.8 million people call South Australia home, a difference from 1.7 million five years ago, but households are getting smaller, with an average of 2.4 people living in each household in 2021.

South Australians are getting older and have the oldest median age of mainland Australia, which may not come as a surprise.

The census was taken 41 years when the census was older, a year older than the previous census, while the Australian median age is 38 years.

She said that living in South Australia had made it easier for her to bring up her two daughters when her first husband died.

She said that I could give them the best education and the best of everything I could do for them because South Australia is very manageable.

The maths and chemistry teacher who has since been married to Vikram Madan said her family took some time to get used to living in Australia.

The accent, the humour, was very different. It took a bit of time to get used to, according to Mrs Madan.

I'm very well settled and I think I made an excellent decision to stay in South Australia.

In the end, I think it's a success story.