Australia’s population has surpassed 27.1 million, with mass immigration responsible for the bulk of the increase despite repeated polls showing most people want lower migration levels.
The population grew by 2.3% to 27,122,411 in the year to March 31, 2024, an increase of 615,300 people, according to new statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.
“Net overseas migration drove 83% of this population growth, while births and deaths, known as natural increase, made up the other 17%,” ABS head of demography Beidar Cho said.
Annual net overseas migration in the year to March 2024 was 509,800 people, down from a peak of 559,900 in September 2023.
A total of 718,400 people immigrated to Australia, an increase of 11,800 (1.7%), while departures decreased by 6,100 people (2.8%) to 208,700.
Natural increase was 105,500 people in the year ending March 2024, made up of 289,700 births and 184,200 deaths registered in Australia.
Western Australia had the fastest growing population, up 3.1% in the 12 months ending March 2023. This was followed by Victoria, which grew by 2.7%, and Queensland, which grew by 2.5%. Tasmania saw the lowest growth, at 0.4%.
New South Wales accepted the most immigrants, taking 168,148, but also lost the most people to net interstate migration – 31,183. Victoria took the second highest number of immigrants, 151, 740, followed by Queensland with 82,794.
Queensland had the highest net interstate migration growth, taking 30,930 people, followed by Western Australian with 10,039.
Australia is now on track to hit 28 million people decades earlier than expected, dwarfing predictions made in a 2002 Howard government report that the population would reach 25.3 million by 2042.
John Howard presided over a large increase in immigration that has been continued by every Coalition and Labor government since, with record increased since 2022 under the Albanese Labor government.
A Resolve poll in May found that 66% of voters think too many immigrants were allowed in last year, a Redbridge survey in April found 72% think immigrants are making housing less affordable, and The Australian Population Research Institute in the same month found that three in four think immigration is too high, and 49% want a “drastic cut”.
Demographer Mark McCrindle told ABC News earlier this year the rapid pace of growth was coming at the same time as “infrastructure bottlenecks”, and said Australia needed to return to “sustainable growth”.
“People are struggling around education, health supply. People trying to afford a home are really against it [population growth], even though there’s government policies around new home construction,” he said.
Mr McCrindle called for more moderation to deal with housing shortfalls, and said Australia needed a “balance between a natural increase as well as migration”.
“We need new births, we need the young people in our population and the stimulation that provides long-term,” he said.
The ABS revealed in April that Australia’s foreign-born population was 30.7%, the highest since federation.
England, India, China and New Zealand were the countries of birth with the largest numbers, and those born in India recorded the largest increase since 2013.
Those born in England are still the largest group, but that population has been steadily falling since 2013, going from 4.4% of the Australian population to 3.6% over the past 10 years.
During the same period the Indian population grew from 378,480 in 2013 to 845,800 in 2023, and from 1.6% of the population to 3.2%.
Those born in China (not including Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan) went from 432,400 and 1.9% of the population in 2013, to 655,760 and 2.5% in 2023.
The fourth largest group, New Zealanders, grew in numerical terms but fell as a percentage, from 585,390 and 2.5% of the population in 2013 to 598,090 and 2.2%.
The countries of birth with the largest increases along with India (467,000) and China (223,000), were Nepal (144,000) and the Philippines (143,000).
Header image: Crowds during Sydney’s Vivid festival in June (X)
