Intercountry adoption to Australia has taken place since at least the late 1960s, but there has never been one complete national dataset covering the entire period.
ICAV has brought together government statistics, historical research, country-specific records and adoption visa data to build the clearest national picture we can of how many intercountry adoptees were adopted to Australia, their birth countries, and how Australia’s intercountry adoption system developed over time.
How many intercountry adoptions have there been to Australia?
Our current compiled estimate is 14,226–14,415 intercountry adoptions to Australia from 1970 to 2025, including recorded expatriate adoptions where identifiable. Intercountry adoption began earlier, so the true 1968–2025 total is higher.
This estimate combines:
- State-arranged intercountry adoptions, recorded mainly through the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), and
- expatriate adoptions, where Australians living overseas adopted through another country’s system and later obtained an Australian adoption visa.
The true total is likely to be higher because some early adoptions, private arrangements, and expatriate cases were not fully recorded in national statistics.
Australia’s intercountry adoption history
The statistics make more sense when placed alongside the history.
Australia’s intercountry adoption system developed in stages, from early ad hoc arrangements in the late 1960s, to parent-led programs, stronger State control, Hague Convention reforms, Commonwealth-State agreements, support services, and more recent investigations and accountability measures.
This timeline gives a simple snapshot of the major national milestones that sit behind the statistics shown on this page. The statistical series runs to 2024–25; the history timeline includes national developments through 2026.
Where did Australia’s intercountry adoptees come from?
Australia’s intercountry adoptee community comes from many birth countries across Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe and the Pacific.
The charts below show the countries with the highest minimum known or compiled totals to 2024–25, including identifiable expatriate adoptions where they can be allocated to a birth country.
These rankings are based on the best evidence currently available. They are minimum totals, not final totals, because some early, suppressed, undocumented or unallocated cases cannot yet be confidently assigned to a country.
Country snapshots
The national totals hide very different country histories. Some programs were large and long-running. Others were concentrated in a short time period. The snapshots below show the broad pattern for each of Australia’s major birth-country groups.
South Korea
South Korea is by far Australia’s largest intercountry adoptee birth-country group. Adoptions began in the late 1960s, rose sharply in the 1980s, and then declined over time. South Korean data are stronger than for many other countries because early figures can be reconstructed using Korean Government data as well as Australian sources.
Philippines
Philippine adoptions occurred in significant numbers before 1990 and continued across the following decades. Identifiable expatriate adoptions add further Filipino adoptees beyond the State-arranged totals.
India
Indian adoptions were already substantial before AIHW began publishing country-level annual data. The figures show a long-running program through the 1990s and 2000s, followed by a marked decline.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is one of the clearest examples of a country where a large proportion of adoptions occurred before 1990. The later annual figures are much lower, showing how dramatically the pattern changed.
China
China had very few known adoptions to Australia before the 1990s. Numbers then rose quickly, peaked in the 2000s, and later declined. Identifiable expatriate adoptions add further cases to the minimum total.
Thailand
Thailand has one of Australia’s longer-running intercountry adoption histories, with meaningful numbers both before and after 1990. Visa data also identify additional expatriate adoptions.
Ethiopia
Australian adoptions from Ethiopia were concentrated mainly between the mid-1990s and early 2010s. Ethiopia is also notable because identifiable expatriate adoptions significantly increase the minimum known total.
Vietnam
Vietnam has a very different history from most other countries. Almost all known Vietnamese adoptions to Australia occurred in the early 1970s, especially during 1972–1975, including Operation Babylift arrivals in April 1975. Very few occurred after that period.
Taiwan
Taiwan’s history is more fragmented than some other countries. Early adoptions include the known Julie Chu cohort and a small number of other documented placements, followed by clearer annual data from the 1990s onward. Identifiable expatriate adoptions are also included where known.
Colombia
Colombian adoptions to Australia were already established before 1990. Numbers were highest in the early and mid-1990s and then declined significantly, although smaller numbers continued in later years.
How ICAV compiled these statistics
These figures are based on a combination of historical and official sources, including:
- the AIHW Adoptions Australia series,
- Australian adoption visa data,
- Trudy Rosenwald’s Chapter 11 in Other People’s Children: Adoption in Australia, pp. 197–206,
- country-specific government and historical data,
- the 1989 Victorian Review of Intercountry Adoption,
- Korean Government data for early South Korean adoptions,
- and other country-specific records used to fill gaps where possible.
Because the historical record is incomplete, ICAV uses terms such as known total, compiled total, minimum total, estimated, and at least. These words reflect the fact that some intercountry adoptees are still not fully visible in Australia’s official historical record.
What these numbers do and do not show
These statistics help show the scale and history of intercountry adoption to Australia but they do not tell the whole story.
The figures do not fully capture:
- undocumented early adoptions;
- some private or informal arrangements;
- expatriate adoptions where detailed country data are unavailable; or
- the personal, legal and historical complexities behind each adoption.
Sources and contributions
You can view ICAV’s Australia ICA Statistics 1968–2025 master dataset PDF for the full list of data and sources used.
This dataset is intended to be a living resource. It may not capture every reliable source or piece of historical data currently available. If you notice a data issue, or have relevant adoption data or source material to contribute, please contact ICAV so it can be reviewed and, where appropriate, added in future updates.
First published September 2026 | Last updated September 2026