As of 31 August, migrants born in India ranked first in four of Australia's eight states and territories when it came to acquiring citizenship by conferral in 2024.

Out of 115,300 migrants who became Australian citizens by conferral up to 31 August this year, more than 15,000 — 13.51 per cent of the total number — were born in India.

Migrants born in New Zealand have a slender lead over them, with just over 16,000 born in Australia's neighbouring country, making 13.97 per cent of the total number of foreign nationals to acquire citizenship.

A decade ago, migrants from India ranked at the top of the citizenship-by-conferral chart.

More than 163,000 migrants from various countries became citizens of Australia in 2014, out of which nearly 28,000 were Indian-born.

This was closely followed by those born in the United Kingdom (nearly 26,000), the Philippines (more than 11,000), South Africa (more than 9,200) and a near-equal number from China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau).

Citizenship by conferral is a common way of becoming a citizen. People need to be a permanent resident and meet certain criteria before they can apply.

Australia's Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 came into effect on 26 January 1949.

Those who were British subjects immediately before that date and were born in Australia, were naturalised, or a resident for the five years immediately before, automatically became Australian citizens by operation of law.

Then-prime minister Ben Chifley automatically became a citizen on that day, along with all other eligible British subjects.

Reports at the time stated Chifley was presented with the first citizenship certificate at the start of the first ceremony, in what the then-immigration minister Arthur Calwell was reported as saying was "purely symbolical".

The first 'non-British subject' to become an Australian citizen, was Jandura (Jan) Pucek, who migrated to Australia from Czechoslovakia in 1939.

He worked at a eucalyptus distillery harvesting timber and settled in Tidbinbilla, now a nature reserve on the outskirts of Canberra.

In 1949, almost 2,493 migrants from more than 35 countries became Australian citizens. A majority of them were migrants from Italy, Poland, Greece, Germany and Yugoslavia.

Since then, Australia has granted citizenship to over six million new citizens from more than 200 countries.

Today, more than half of all Australians were born overseas or have a parent who was.

In the financial year 2023-2024, more than 187,000 people became Australian citizens. (SBS News)