Australia is known as one of the world’s major “immigration nations” alongside New Zealand, Canada, and the US. So it’s perhaps not surprising that migration is a perennial political issue here.
The Coalition wants to make the next federal election about migration — and so far this year, the issue has indeed helped it dominate the news agenda. That’s despite migration being projected to actually decrease in the coming year.
In the latest instalment of Crikey’s Paint by Numbers series, we help you make sense of the key figures when it comes to migration.
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Net migration intake in 2022-23, according to the latest federal budget: 528,000
Projected net migration intake in 2023-24: 395,000
Projected net migration intake in 2024-25: 260,000
Projected net migration intake in 2025-26: 255,000
Projected net migration intake in 2026-27 and 2027-28: 235,000
Number of people forcibly displaced, globally: more than 100 million
Number of people in urgent need of resettlement, globally: more than 2 million
Number of people to be resettled in Australia’s humanitarian program per year: 20,000
Number of times Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has answered questions about migration in press conferences and interviews so far in 2024: at least 60
Number of times Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has answered questions about migration in press conferences and interviews, so far in 2024: at least 47
Percentage of voters surveyed who rate immigration and border security as one of their top five issues, as of June: 24
Percentage of voters surveyed who rated immigration and border security as one of their top five issues, as of one year earlier: 15
Years Indigenous people have been living in Australia: at least 65,000
Number of convicts that arrived in Australia between 1788 and 1868: 160,000
Year first federal immigration portfolio created: 1945
Number of people who settled in Australia between 1945 and 2017: more than 7.5 million
Total number of Australian residents in 2023: 26.6 million
Amount of those who were born overseas: 8.2 million
Percentage of Australian residents born abroad: 30.7
Financial year when China surpassed the UK as the primary source of immigrants to Australia: 2010-11
Number of Australian residents born in England, as of 2023: 926,000
Number of Australian residents born in India, as of 2023: 846,000
Number of Australian residents born in China, as of 2023: 656,000
Number of Australian residents born in New Zealand, as of 2023: 598,000
Percentage of people, globally, who live outside their country of birth, as of 2020: 3.6
Australia’s place of the global ranking of countries with the most foreign-born residents: 9
