Australia’s migration intake falls as number of people leaving the country surges

The number of migrants coming to Australia has fallen to a three-year low.

Net overseas migration fell to 305,600 over the 2024-2025 financial year, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show.

In the June quarter alone, migration eased to 50,120 people, the smallest quarterly jump since the end of the Covid pandemic in 2021.

Net overseas migration tracks the number of people leaving or coming to a country and staying for at least 12 of 16 months.

ABS head of migration statistics Jenny Dobak said net overseas migration had fallen from its peak.

“Net overseas migration dropped by 124,000 people in 2024-25, falling for the second year in a row since the financial year high of 538,000 people in 2022-23,” she said.

The change in net overseas migration was driven by both a 14 per cent drop in new migrants – particularly temporary visa holders – and a 13 per cent increase in the number of migrants leaving Australia.

The number of migrant departures rose to 263,000 people in 2024-25, up from 232,000 people the year before.

“While net overseas migration is not currently at the level seen prior to the pandemic, this year’s overseas migration figures are the closest to pre-Covid-19 figures since annual net overseas migration peaked in September quarter 2023,” Ms Dobak said.

She said it was the second year in a row of falling temporary visa holders.

“We are seeing temporary visa holders continuing to leave the country after having arrived during the period of high migration once borders reopened in early 2022,” Ms Dobak said.

“For example, migrant departures on working holiday visas have more than doubled for two consecutive financial years and contributed the largest increase to departures in 2024-25.”

The estimates are in line with Wednesday’s mid-year budget update, which forecasts net overseas migration to ease to 310,000 people in the 12 months to June 2026.

This is down from a previous estimate in the March budget of about 335,000 migrants but above the May budget forecast of 260,000 new people coming to Australia.

Net migrant arrivals are now 3 per cent higher than in 2018-2019, but net departures remain 15 per cent lower.

In 2024-25, there was a net loss of 17,000 Australian-born people though migration. This is in line with the average yearly net loss for the five years leading up to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since the Albanese government came into office in 2022, about 1.3 million people have arrived from overseas, equating to 84 per cent of the population increase.