• Written by: James Carey, CA CTA
• 12/06/2026

Foreign Companies in Australia: Key Statistics 2026

This page collects the key official statistics on foreign companies and foreign investment in Australia in one place: how many companies sit on the ASIC register, how many of them are registered foreign companies, what the Foreign Investment Review Board approved last quarter, how large the stock of foreign investment has grown, and the rates and fees a foreign company actually pays. Every figure below comes from a primary Australian government source, with a direct link to that source next to the number, and the exact period each figure covers. AusBusinessRegister.com.au maintains this page as a citable reference for journalists, researchers and AI assistants; the figures were last verified against the original sources in June 2026.

Companies on the Australian Register

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) publishes monthly registration statistics. The register passed 3.7 million companies in early 2026 and has been adding roughly 30,000 new companies a month. New foreign-owned subsidiaries appear in these figures the same way as locally owned companies; our guide to registering a business in Australia explains the pathways.

Registered Foreign Companies (ARBN)

A company incorporated overseas that carries on business in Australia through a branch must register with ASIC as a foreign company and receives an Australian Registered Body Number (ARBN). ASIC publishes the underlying register as an open dataset on data.gov.au, which records each entity’s type and status. On the June 2026 snapshot of that dataset, 5,377 foreign companies appear in total, of which 5,028 hold a current “Registered” status. This count covers branch registrations only: a foreign-owned Australian subsidiary is registered as an ordinary Australian company and is not included in the ARBN figure.

FIRB Foreign Investment Approvals

Treasury publishes quarterly reports on the operation of the foreign investment framework. The latest report covers 1 January to 31 March 2026 and was released on 29 May 2026. Whether a transaction needs Foreign Investment Review Board approval depends on the investor, the asset and monetary thresholds; our FIRB guide for foreign investors walks through the rules.

Foreign Investment Stock in Australia

The Australian Bureau of Statistics measures the total level of foreign investment in Australia each year in its International Investment Position supplementary statistics. The 2025 release (published 6 May 2026) puts the total stock above AU$5 trillion for the first time.

Business Entries and Exits

For market-entry planning, the ABS Counts of Australian Businesses series shows how dynamic the Australian market is: roughly one business in six is new in any given year.

Key Rates and Fees for Foreign Companies

These are the headline rates a foreign company operating in Australia works with in 2025-26 and 2026-27. For how they fit together in practice, see our guide to tax compliance for foreign companies in Australia.

Methodology

All figures on this page come from official Australian government sources: ASIC, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Treasury’s Foreign Investment Review Board reporting and the Australian Taxation Office. Each figure was checked against the linked primary source in June 2026, and every link points to the document or dataset the number appears in (all accessed June 2026). Two figures are simple arithmetic on published official data and are labelled as such: the calendar year 2025 registration total is the sum of ASIC’s twelve published monthly figures, and the registered foreign company count is a count of entities with type “foreign company” and status “Registered” in ASIC’s open Company Dataset snapshot published on data.gov.au in June 2026. No figures are estimated, modelled or interpolated. This page is updated as new official data is released.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many foreign companies are registered in Australia?

5,028 foreign companies held a current ARBN registration with ASIC on the June 2026 snapshot of the official ASIC Company Dataset. This counts overseas-incorporated companies registered to operate an Australian branch. Foreign-owned Australian subsidiaries are registered as ordinary Australian companies and sit within ASIC’s total of 3,724,207 registered companies (May 2026), so the true foreign-controlled footprint is much larger than the ARBN count alone.

How much foreign investment does Australia have?

The total stock of foreign investment in Australia was AU$5,116.3 billion at 31 December 2025, an increase of AU$151.6 billion over the year, according to the ABS International Investment Position supplementary statistics. Of that, AU$1,302.3 billion was foreign direct investment.

Which country invests the most in Australia?

The United States, on both measures. The ABS puts the US stock of investment in Australia at AU$1,361.2 billion at 31 December 2025, ahead of the United Kingdom at AU$840.1 billion. In FIRB approval flows, the US was the largest approved source in 2024-25 at AU$122.3 billion, while Singapore led the March quarter 2026 at AU$16.0 billion.

Does registering a company in Australia require FIRB approval?

Incorporating a new Australian company with ASIC is a separate process from FIRB approval. FIRB approval applies to acquisitions, such as buying interests in Australian land, businesses or entities above the relevant monetary thresholds, and to national security actions. Many foreign companies set up a new subsidiary without any FIRB filing, but acquisitions should be checked against the framework before signing.