ABS reports 446,000 new overseas migrants in 2023-24 financial year

There’s no end in sight to “Big Australia”, with the Australian Bureau of Statistics reporting another whopping intake of migrants for the 2023-24 financial year.

The country took in 446,000 net overseas migrants across the year, the ABS said on Friday.

The intake represents a 16 per cent decline on the 536,000 migrants who arrived across the 2022-23 year, but the number is still far above the federal government’s stated ambition to cut migration to 260,000 in the next financial year.

The ABS calculates the net overseas migration figure by subtracting the number of migrant departures from the number of migrant arrivals.

“This fall (from 2022-23) represents the first annual drop in net overseas migration since Australia’s borders reopened in 2021-22,” ABS head of migration statistics Jenny Dobak said.

“This change in net overseas migration is led by a decrease in migrant arrivals, largely temporary visa holders, while departures increased during the same period.

“It follows a period of multiple record increases in net overseas migration consistent with a catch-up in arrivals following almost two years of border restrictions during the Covid pandemic.”

The largest cohort of migrants were temporary students, the ABS said, numbering 207,000 people.

The top five countries of birth for overseas migrants across the year were India, China, Australia, the UK and New Zealand and the median age was 27.

Every state and territory recorded a net gain to their respective populations.

NSW led the country with 142,470 migrants, followed by Victoria with 132,860.

Queensland took in 74,930 migrants, Western Australia welcomed 58,080 and South Australia added 23,270.

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said the number demonstrated the Labor government had failed to control migration.

“Where will all these people live?” he said on Friday.

“Labor has again overshot its migration target, this time by an additional 50,600 migrants.

“It follows the record-breaking 518,000 migrant arrivals under Labor in 2022-23.

“When Labor was first elected, they said annual migration would be 235,000 each year over three years of their term in government.

“The real annual migration figures under Labor are 518,000 in 2022-23, 445,600 in 2023-24 and (who knows) for 2024- 25.

“Anthony Albanese has no credibility when it comes to managing immigration.”

The number could add pressure to the country’s rolling housing crisis.

A growing cohort of working and middle-class Australians are increasingly shut out of home ownership as demand for housing outstrips supply, leading to sharp increases in house prices.

In October, CoreLogic data showed the country’s house price growth had pushed a further 200 suburbs into the exclusive “million-dollar club” or areas with median house values above $1m.

There were now 1257 million-dollar markets across the country, the consulting firm said, an 18.5 per cent jump on the 1057 suburbs with million-dollar price tags in 2023.

Of the 4772 suburbs CoreLogic analysed, 29.3 per cent of them boast values above $1m, outstripping a previous market peak of 26.9 per cent recorded in April 2022.

“At the onset of Covid, just 14.3 per cent of house and unit markets had a median value at or above the $1m mark,” CoreLogic economist Kaytlin Ezzy said at the time.

“With almost 30 per cent of suburbs now posting a seven-figure median, the increase is a natural consequence of rising values and worsening affordability.”

Immigration Minister Tony Burke told NewsWire the government was “continuing to bring migration down from its post Covid peak”.

“Given his history as the minister who granted the most visas in Australian history, it’s unsurprising that (Opposition Leader) Peter Dutton has gone from voting against migration caps to walking away from having any migration target at all,” he said.

“He will take the brakes off migration, deepening the housing crisis.”