Chinese Australians
As a whole, Australian residents identifying themselves as having Chinese ancestry made up 5.6% of those nominating their ancestry at the 2016 census and numbered 1,213,903. At the 2016 census, 509,555 people declared that they were born in Mainland China, 86,886 declared that they were born in Hong Kong, while 46,882 declared that they were born in Taiwan. There are also a large number of persons of Chinese ancestry among those born in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Australian diaspora
The diaspora has been the focus of policy concerns over a so-called "brain drain" from Australia. However, the 2003 CEDA report argued the phenomenon was essentially positive: rather than experiencing a "brain drain", Australia was in fact seeing both "brain circulation" as Australians added to their skills and expertise, and a "brain gain", as these skilled expatriates tended to return to Australia and new skilled immigrants were arriving. Between 1999 and 2003, there were seven highly educated migrants to Australia for every one highly educated Australian who was living elsewhere in countries within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Levels of skilled immigration to Australia reflect Government policies to "practise a selective immigration policy based on human capital criteria".