International student Nadia Radzman, from Malaysia, has been studying in Canberra for eight years. Photo: Melissa Adams
International student Nadia Radzman is the new face of inner-city Canberra, as fresh statistics show more than half of Civic residents were born overseas.
The plant science PhD candidate, originally from Selangor, Malaysia, said she loved living in Canberra and many of her fellow international students agreed.
She has studied in Canberra for eight years and now lives at the Australian National University's Warrumbul Lodge in Civic.
''I've been to Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Sydney, but every time I came back I realised I liked Canberra better than all of them,'' she said.
''When I was away, I missed Canberra.''
New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has shown a quarter of Canberra's population were born overseas, with Acton and Civic the most popular suburbs for migrants. According to the study, which was released on Tuesday, Canberra has a total migrant population of 85,024, higher than either Hobart's or Darwin's.
The new statistics are based on numbers from the 2011 census.
The inner-city suburbs of Acton and Civic had the largest number of migrants, with nearly 57 per cent of residents born overseas.
Click or touch on an icon to see how many people in the suburb were born overseas. Source: ABS
Ms Radzman said her student accommodation in Civic was packed with people from around the world.
''I think people live in the city because it's just convenient and close to everything,'' she said. ''In Canberra everything is so close. You can walk everywhere or take the bus.''
The Australian Bureau of Statistics' assistant director of social and progress reporting, Guinevere Hunt, said suburbs near universities tended to be most popular with migrants.
There were 4705 international students enrolled at ANU last year, and a spokesman for the university said those numbers could increase to about 5500 students in second semester.
''Our total student population is approximately 21,000 and international students generally account for 25 per cent of our student numbers,'' the spokesman said.
A spokesman for the University of Canberra said it had almost 2000 international students enrolled in courses, with close to 13,000 students altogether.
More than one third of the residents of Bruce, which is home to the University of Canberra, were born overseas.
Ms Radzman said a lot of her fellow students who have finished their studies and gone to live in Asia told her how much they missed Canberra. ''While they're away they always talk and tweet about Canberra,'' she said.
Phillip, Franklin, O'Malley and Belconnen also had a large number of international residents - between 40 per cent and 44 per cent of people in those suburbs were born overseas.
The ABS said new or redeveloped suburbs, such as Franklin, had also proved popular with migrants.
With a total population of 3663 people, 44.4 per cent of Franklin residents were born overseas.
Overall there are 5.3 million migrants in Australia, almost a quarter of the population and a larger number per capita than in the United States, Canada or New Zealand.
More than half of all migrants in Australia live in Sydney and Melbourne, with most likely to live in major urban areas.
The largest contributor to Australia's migrant population remains Britain with 1.1 million British-born migrants now settled in Australia, followed by New Zealand, China and India.
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