Australia’s population grew by 1.6 per cent in the 12 months to 30 September 2022, according to the latest figures released by the ABS.
Beidar Cho, head of ABS Demography, said: “Our population at 30 September 2022 is 26.1 million people, after we recorded an increase of 418,500 people over the year. That’s 1.6% growth, which is similar to what we saw in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic began.”
Natural increase was 114,800 people, a decrease of 18.1 per cent from the previous year.
There were 302,900 births and 188,000 deaths registered during this time, with deaths increasing 10.8% mainly due to COVID-19 and births decreasing 2.3%.
“Migrant arrivals have returned to similar levels to those prior to the pandemic but departures remain lower – mainly because there are fewer recently arrived temporary migrants, like international students, who are due to leave.”
There were 536,900 overseas migration arrivals and 233,200 departures, resulting in Australia’s population growing by 303,700 people from overseas migration.