Australia welcomes more than 1,500 people a day as immigration increases and the birth rate falls amid a housing affordability and cost of living crisis.
A record 454,400 migrants moved to Australia in the year to March, on a net basis, bringing the population to 26.5 million.
The influx of international students and skilled migrants means Australia has welcomed more foreigners than it did in 2008, during the mining boom.
Foreign immigration accounted for 80.7 percent of Australia’s population growth, with a total of 563,200 new arrivals, including the country’s net birth rate of 108,800.
That equates to 1,543 new people per day in a country already struggling with a rental crisis, unaffordable housing and high inflation.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that before departures were taken into account, 681,000 migrants arrived during the year, a 103 percent increase in the number of permanent and long-term immigrants to the country. stranger.
Australia welcomes more than 1,500 people a day as immigration rises and birth rates fall amid housing affordability and cost of living crises (pictured, crowds in the Sydney’s Pitt Street Shopping Centre)
The number of people permanently migrating abroad increased by 8.8 percent to 226,600.
The cost of living crisis also coincided with an 18.5 percent drop in the net birth rate, to 108,800.
This figure, called natural increase, was based on 301,200 births, down 3.4 percent, less 192,300 deaths, an increase of 7.9 percent.
‘Mortality from Covid-19 continues to contribute to the increase in deaths,” the ABS said.
Quarterly data also shows NSW welcomed 153,419 new overseas migrants during the year, ahead of 137,845 in Victoria.
Before permanent overseas departures were taken into account, Australia’s two largest states were home to 42.7 per cent of immigrants.
But New South Wales, home to Sydney, Australia’s most expensive capital, is also losing residents to other states, with 117,492 people leaving for another part of Australia, compared with 87,279 from Highway.
This means NSW experienced a population growth rate of 1.9 per cent, which was lower than the national average of 2.2 per cent.
Australia’s population growth, fueled by immigration, is among the highest in the developed world, behind Canada and Singapore.
Sustainable Population Australia president Jenny Goldie said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was ignoring calls to reduce immigration.
“Under the Albanian government, immigration has exploded in all proportions,” she said.
“Mr Albanese knows very well that voters want much lower levels of migration.
“He and his ministers continue to deceive them with absurd and contradictory lies that this breathtaking immigration is “not government policy”, or “only catching up with Covid”, or “leads to a slowdown in population growth “. .’
A Guardian Essential poll of 1,138 people, published in May, found that 59 per cent of respondents supported capping immigration “until we have enough affordable housing”.
Immigration accounted for 80.7 percent of Australia’s population growth, with 563,200 new arrivals, including a net birth rate of 108,800. This equates to 1,543 new people per day in a country already struggling with a rental crisis, unaffordable housing and high inflation (pictured, a queue for rentals in Bondi)
Treasurer Jim Chalmers told the ABC’s Q&A program in May that the government did not have direct control over net overseas migration.
‘This is not a government policy or objective,” he said.
“It’s not a floor or a ceiling, it’s not something that the government determines.”
Dr Chalmers told Sky News business editor Ross Greenwood in August that net overseas immigration was increasing because fewer people were going to live and work abroad.
“Fewer Australians are going overseas to work and so that’s temporarily driving that number and it’s largely a recovery from what we saw during Covid,” he said. he declares.
However, resource-rich states with the highest population growth receive more residents from interstate migration.
Western Australia had the highest population growth, at 2.8 per cent, in a state where Perth’s median house price of $634,169 is more affordable than other state capitals .
This says it ahead of Queensland with 2.3 percent, where people from Sydney and Melbourne have moved to the warmer climate of the Gold Coast.
Victoria’s population increased by 2.4 percent, in a state welcoming an influx of new migrants to Melbourne.
The reopening of the Australian border in December 2021 and the end of Covid-related lockdowns caused a slowdown in population growth in provincial states.
South Australia’s population grew by 1.6 percent, compared to just 0.4 percent in Tasmania, 0.9 percent in the Northern Territory and 2 percent in the Australian Capital Territory.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers told the ABC’s Q&A program in May that he had no direct control over net overseas migration.
