How many Australians live in America? More than 100,000, and the number just hit a record. The US Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey counted 112,037 Australian-born residents — up from 97,250 the year before. That makes the community of Australians in America larger than at any point in history.
But the number that gets repeated everywhere is the boring part of the story. What nobody has put together publicly is who those Australians actually are, where they live down to the city, what they do for work, and what they earn. So we did. Australians live in California and Florida, but they work in New York. Half of all E-3 jobs are concentrated in just three metros. The median Australian working in America now earns over $155,000 a year — a number that has risen for six consecutive years. And one Australian company has quietly become the single largest pipeline for Australian talent into the United States.
This article is the first published count of Australians in America that combines two federal datasets: the US Census Bureau and the US Department of Labor. Together they show not just how many Australians live here, but how the community actually works.
How many Australians live in America today
The headline number depends on which Census estimate you trust, and both are useful.
The 2024 one-year American Community Survey estimate puts the Australian-born population at 112,037 (±7,058). That's a record, and a sharp jump from the 97,250 figure for 2023.
The steadier five-year average — which smooths single-year survey noise — is 102,482 (±2,985), itself up from 99,555 the previous year. Either way, the number is now comfortably above 100,000 and growing.
The reason most published figures sit around 97,000 is that they're quoting the 2021 number. That plateau year has been re-quoted across hundreds of articles without being updated. The current count is materially higher.
The Australian community in America has grown 57% since 2010
For most of the 2010s, the Australian-born population in the US sat just above 90,000 people. It plateaued through the pandemic. Then it jumped sharply in 2024.
| Year | Australian-born population |
|---|---|
| 2010 | 71,535 |
| 2015 | 83,573 |
| 2019 | 98,969 |
| 2021 | 97,815 |
| 2022 | 95,670 |
| 2023 | 97,250 |
| 2024 | 112,037 |
That's a 57% increase over 14 years. The 2024 jump alone — about 15,000 people in a single year — is large enough to be statistically real rather than survey noise.
The community is also a relatively recent one. According to the 2023 American Community Survey, about half of Australian-born US residents (49.6%) arrived in 2010 or later. A third have been here since before 2000. So the Australian community in America is layered: a long-settled core, a wave of arrivals over the past decade, and a steady flow of new arrivals every year.
Settled or sojourning? The citizenship breakdown
Not every Australian-born resident is here on a visa. The Census tells us how rooted the community actually is.
Of the 97,250 Australian-born US residents counted in the 2023 ACS detailed profile, 40% are naturalized US citizens — 39,432 people, fully settled, many of them dual nationals. The other 60% are non-citizens. That label bundles three groups: green-card holders (lawful permanent residents who haven't naturalized), people on long-term work visas like the E-3, and students.
That distinction matters. “Non-citizen” doesn't mean “temporary.” A large portion of that 57,818 non-citizen group is permanent residents who simply haven't gone through the citizenship process. The community is more settled than a visa-flow story alone would suggest.
It's also a high-earning community. The median household income for Australian-born US residents is $149,067 — well above the US median household figure of around $80,000. That household-level figure averages working professionals, retirees, students, and stay-at-home spouses together, so it understates what working Australians on visas like the E-3 individually earn (we'll see those figures below).
The E-3 visa: the clearest window we have
The richest source of data on working Australians in America is the E-3 visa, a work visa available only to Australians. It's capped at 10,500 new issuances per year. The cap has never been more than about 55% used.
Before any employer can sponsor an E-3 worker, they have to file a Labor Condition Application (LCA) with the US Department of Labor. The LCA states the job title, the worksite location, and the wage being offered. Those filings are public. America Josh maintains a searchable database of every E-3 LCA filed since FY2020 — 67,366 filings to date — refreshed quarterly. Explore the full E-3 data hub →
One important caveat before reading the numbers: an LCA filing is not a person. Visa renewals, job changes, and amendments each generate a fresh filing. Total filings run at roughly twice the number of visas actually issued. The State Department issues around 4,000 to 4,500 new E-3 principal visas a year (it issued 4,434 in FY2023; the peak was 5,807 in FY2019). What the LCA database does give us — and what no other source provides — is the richest public map of where Australian professionals work, what they do, and what they're paid.
An estimate of the standing E-3 community: with around 4,000-4,500 new principal visas a year, a typical multi-year stay, and E-3D visas for spouses and children (historically 2,000-4,000 per year), the active E-3 population in America is plausibly 35,000 to 45,000 people. That makes E-3 holders the largest single visa-based group inside the 57,818 non-citizen Australian-born residents the Census counts.
Where Australians in America live versus where they work
Here is something that has not been published before. Australians live in one set of states. They work on the E-3 in a noticeably different set. Put the two federal datasets side by side and the gap is striking.
| State | Where Australians live (Census 2024) | Where they work on the E-3 (DOL) |
|---|---|---|
| California | 23.8% | 24.9% |
| New York | 12.4% | 30.3% |
| Texas | 6.9% | 8.3% |
| Florida | 6.5% | 3.2% |
| Washington | 4.3% | 4.7% |
| Colorado | 3.6% | 2.4% |
| Massachusetts | 2.8% | 2.3% |
Three things jump out.
California is where Australians live; New York is where they work. California holds the largest Australian-born population at 23.8%, but New York accounts for nearly a third of all E-3 jobs (30.3%) while housing only 12.4% of Australian residents. New York is a work magnet — finance, law, the Sydney-to-Wall-Street corridor — pulling Australians in on employer-sponsored visas far out of proportion to the broader community.
Florida is a lifestyle state, not a work state. It's home to 6.5% of Australian-born residents but only 3.2% of E-3 jobs. That's the signature of retirees, family migrants, and long-settled Australians — not sponsored professionals.
The two datasets agree on the big picture. California, New York, Texas and Washington top both lists. That's exactly why the divergences are credible. Same underlying community, two independent federal counts. Why do the lists diverge? Simple, once you see it. The Census counts every Australian — retirees, students, spouses, dual citizens, the long-settled. E-3 data counts only working professionals on a specific employer-sponsored visa. Where those two diverge tells you something neither could alone.
The cities where Australians in America live versus work
The state-level pattern repeats at city level — and sharpens. Below are the ten metros with the most Australians. The columns show what share of Australians live there (Census) against what share of E-3 jobs are filed there (DOL).
The final column is a work index: a metro's share of E-3 jobs divided by its share of Australian residents. Above 1.0 means Australians work there out of proportion to how many live there. Below 1.0 means it's more a place they settle than a place they get sponsored to work.
| Metro | Australian residents | E-3 jobs | Work index |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 13,651 | 19,301 | 1.67 |
| Austin | 1,168 | 1,228 | 1.24 |
| San Francisco Bay Area | 7,185 | 7,409 | 1.22 |
| Seattle | 3,048 | 2,647 | 1.02 |
| Houston | 2,735 | 1,402 | 0.60 |
| Miami | 1,352 | 660 | 0.58 |
| Chicago | 2,890 | 1,377 | 0.56 |
| Los Angeles | 9,924 | 4,280 | 0.51 |
| Washington DC | 2,856 | 1,041 | 0.43 |
| Boston | 2,646 | 904 | 0.40 |
The pattern is clean and tells you something real about the Australian experience in each city.
Finance and tech hubs are work magnets. New York (1.67), Austin (1.24) and the Bay Area (1.22) pull Australians in for work. These are the E-3 heartlands of banking, law and software. Visa volume runs well ahead of the resident population.
Lifestyle, creative and academic cities skew the other way. Los Angeles (0.51), Washington DC (0.43) and Boston (0.40) host large Australian communities the E-3 doesn't fully explain. LA's creatives often hold O-1 artist visas rather than E-3s. DC and Boston draw students, academics, diplomats, and the long-settled. Miami (0.58) fits the Florida lifestyle pattern.
Seattle sits right at parity (1.02). Its Australian residents and its E-3 jobs are in near-perfect balance — the mark of a single-industry tech town where living there and working there are the same thing.
These ten metros hold 63% of all E-3 jobs. Browse the underlying data: New York E-3 data · California · Texas · Washington · Florida.
What Australians in America do for work
The occupation mix is the other thing no one has published. Below are the top E-3 job categories, ranked by share of all certified filings since FY2020.
| Occupation | Share of all E-3 filings | Median wage (FY2025+) |
|---|---|---|
| Software Developers | 11.4% | $163,862 |
| General & Operations Managers | 5.4% | $150,000 |
| Marketing Managers | 5.0% | $189,030 |
| Financial & Investment Analysts | 4.7% | $165,185 |
| Market Research & Marketing Specialists | 4.6% | $100,000 |
| Management Analysts | 3.0% | $156,645 |
| Lawyers | 2.6% | $260,000 |
| Chief Executives | 2.3% | $264,080 |
| Airline Pilots | 2.0% | $215,280 |
The working Australian in America is, overwhelmingly, a skilled professional. Tech, finance, management, law, marketing. They cluster in the most expensive cities in the country, and they're paid accordingly. Browse all roles →
How much Australians in America earn
The E-3 is not a low-wage back door into the United States. The median certified E-3 salary has risen every year for six consecutive years.
| Fiscal year | Median E-3 wage |
|---|---|
| 2020 | $120,000 |
| 2021 | $128,356 |
| 2022 | $132,000 |
| 2023 | $140,000 |
| 2024 | $146,000 |
| 2025 | $150,000 |
| 2026 (H1) | $155,000 |
Half of all E-3 jobs now pay more than $155,000 a year — roughly AUD $235,000 at mid-2026 exchange rates, and well above the US household median.
Two independent datasets converge on the same answer here. The median individual E-3 wage of around $150,000-$155,000 lands almost exactly on the Census median household income of $149,067 for Australian-born US residents. When two unrelated federal sources agree, the conclusion is hard to argue with. Australians in America are, by any reasonable measure, high earners.
The Australian companies bringing Australians to America
For an Australian audience, the standout pattern in the data is that Australian-owned companies are themselves a major pipeline of Australian talent into the United States. They use the E-3 visa to move their own people to New York, San Francisco, and beyond.
Certified E-3 filings by Australia-linked employers since FY2020:
- Macquarie (all US entities combined) — over 760 filings, the single largest Australian-talent pipeline into the US. Macquarie E-3 data →
- Rokt — 112 filings
- Atlassian — 87 filings (Atlassian E-3 data →)
- Commonwealth Bank of Australia — 76 filings
- Westpac — 54 filings
- Afterpay — 33 filings
- AustralianSuper — 29 filings
- Rio Tinto — 25 filings
- Telstra — 20 filings
- BHP — 19 filings
- Canva — 16 filings (Canva E-3 data →)
Financial services dominate the list. Macquarie, CommBank, Westpac and AustralianSuper are quietly running a Sydney-to-Wall-Street talent corridor. The tech contingent — Atlassian, Canva, Rokt — is significant but smaller than the banks in raw numbers.
What's changing for Australians in America in 2026
Three trends stand out in the most current data as we move through 2026.
E-3 volume is steady. FY2026 is on pace to match FY2025 at about 10,000 LCA filings annually, with a stable 88% certification rate. No collapse, no boom — just steady flow.
Wages keep climbing. The median is up to $155,000, marking the sixth consecutive annual increase since FY2020.
The map is widening. New York and California still dominate. But mid-tier states like Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Maryland are gaining share. Remote-friendly roles and cost-of-living offsets are opening up second-tier metros to Australian workers in a way they weren't five years ago.
For Australians weighing a move, the complete E-3 visa guide covers eligibility, the application process, what to do if you're approved, and what to expect when you arrive. For the data picture by your specific job, employer, or city, the E-3 data explorer breaks it down by every variable.
Methodology and limitations
Population figures are from the US Census Bureau American Community Survey, table B05006 (Place of Birth for the Foreign-Born Population): Australian-born totals are 112,037 in the 2024 one-year estimate (±7,058) and 102,482 on the 2024 five-year average (±2,985). State-level shares are from the same table, 2024 five-year (state estimates sum to the national five-year total of 102,482, which is a clean internal check). Visa-flow figures are from US Department of State issuance statistics.
The standing E-3 community estimate of 35,000-45,000 is modeled from State Department issuance flow and the two-year renewal cycle, not a direct count. The “live” versus “work” shares compare different measures: each state's slice of the resident Australian-born population versus each state's slice of certified E-3 job filings. They are deliberately compared, not conflated.
Metro figures for Australian residents are from B05006 at the CBSA level, 2024 five-year (the San Francisco Bay Area combines the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metros). E-3 jobs are certified filings aggregated from worksite city into the matching metro. The work index divides a metro's share of E-3 jobs by its share of Australian residents within the ten focus metros, which makes it robust to the fact that filings are cumulative since FY2020 while residents are a single-year snapshot.
Citizenship, year of entry, and household income are from ACS table S0201 (Selected Population Profile), 2023 one-year, population group “Australia” (place of birth). E-3 detail on geography, occupation, wages, and employers is from public US Department of Labor LCA disclosure files for FY2020 through FY2026 H1, totaling 67,366 filings, refreshed quarterly. Wages are outlier-trimmed to between $1 and $2 million; employer names are canonicalized across legal entity variants (Macquarie's US entities, for example, are rolled up). LCA filings are used for distribution, not as a headcount of people.
How many Australians live in America FAQs
According to the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey, 112,037 Australian-born people lived in the United States in 2024 (the most recent year for which data is available), up from 97,250 in 2023. The steadier five-year average estimate is 102,482. Either way, the Australian community in America now sits above 100,000 and is growing.
The State Department issues around 4,000 to 4,500 new E-3 principal visas per year, well under the 10,500 annual cap. Counting renewals and E-3D family visas, the standing E-3 community is plausibly 35,000 to 45,000 people, making E-3 holders the largest visa-based bloc within the broader Australian community in the US.
California holds the largest Australian-born population at 23.8%, followed by New York (12.4%), Texas (6.9%), Florida (6.5%), and Washington state (4.3%). At the metro level, New York leads with 13,651 Australian residents, followed by Los Angeles (9,924) and the San Francisco Bay Area (7,185).
New York dominates work-related Australian migration, accounting for 30.3% of all E-3 jobs despite housing only 12.4% of Australian residents. California is second at 24.9% of E-3 jobs, followed by Texas (8.3%), Washington (4.7%), and Florida (3.2%). Australians work in New York and live in California — the two datasets diverge in revealing ways.
The top E-3 occupations are software developers (11.4% of certified filings), general and operations managers (5.4%), marketing managers (5.0%), financial and investment analysts (4.7%), management analysts (3.0%), lawyers (2.6%), chief executives (2.3%), and airline pilots (2.0%). The working Australian in America is overwhelmingly a skilled professional in tech, finance, management, law, or marketing.
The median certified E-3 salary in fiscal year 2026 is $155,000 a year — half of all E-3 jobs now pay above that figure, or roughly AUD $235,000 at mid-2026 exchange rates. The median has risen every year for six consecutive years. Separately, the US Census reports a median household income for Australian-born US residents of $149,067.
Macquarie leads by a wide margin with over 760 E-3 filings across its US entities since FY2020, making it the single largest Australian-talent pipeline into the US. Other major sponsors include Rokt (112 filings), Atlassian (87), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (76), Westpac (54), Afterpay (33), AustralianSuper (29), Rio Tinto (25), Telstra (20), BHP (19), and Canva (16).
Yes, steadily. The Australian-born US population has grown by 57% since 2010, from 71,535 to 112,037 in 2024. E-3 visa filings have held around 10,000 a year through early 2026 with a stable 88% certification rate, and median E-3 wages have risen for six consecutive years.
About 40% of Australian-born US residents (39,432 people) are naturalized US citizens, many of them dual nationals. The other 60% (57,818 people) are not US citizens, but that group includes both permanent residents (green-card holders) and people on temporary work and student visas. About half of all Australian-born US residents arrived in 2010 or later.
Population figures come from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey (table B05006). Citizenship and income data come from ACS table S0201. The data on where Australians work, what they do, and what they earn comes from US Department of Labor Labor Condition Application (LCA) disclosure filings — 67,366 of them since fiscal year 2020, refreshed quarterly. Visa flow figures come from US Department of State issuance statistics.
This article uses the most current data available as of June 2026. Census figures are from the 2024 American Community Survey (the latest release), Department of Labor LCA data is current through fiscal year 2026 H1 (October 2025 through March 2026), and Department of State issuance figures cover through fiscal year 2024. The article will be updated as new data is released.
