3106.0 - Demography News, Aug 2010  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 17/08/2010   
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RELEASE OF MIGRATION, AUSTRALIA 2008–09 (CAT. NO. 3412.0)

The annual publication, Migration, Australia 2008-09 (cat. no. 3412.0), was released on 29 July 2010. This publication brings together statistics on international migration into and out of Australia, internal migration (including interstate and intrastate) within Australia and information on overseas-born residents of Australia. Chapters include: Migration in Context; Net Overseas Migration; Improving Net Overseas Migration Estimation - Recent changes; Australia's Diverse Population; and Interstate Migration. The publication also includes a Feature Article - Housing Mobility in Australia.

Housing Mobility in Australia explores aspects of mobility for people who have responded to the Survey of Income and Housing, 2007-08. It examines characteristics including frequency of moves, reasons for moving, mobility by age and sex, income and educational attainment.

Net overseas migration

For the first time, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has published net overseas migration (NOM) by visa type. This has allowed analysis of NOM by major groupings (i.e. temporary visas, permanent visas, New Zealand citizens and Australian citizens) who have actually contributed to net overseas migration.

Clarification of data sources used to analyse overseas migration

There are a number of data sources that can be used in the analysis of overseas migration. However, there are three main data sources that can be often confused on the measurement of the event of overseas migration. They include

  • the number of travellers from the NOM collection;
  • the number of movements from the overseas arrivals and departures (OAD) collection; and
  • the number of visas being granted.

It is data on the number of travellers from the NOM collection that accurate migration estimates are based on. It is these NOM estimates that are used in the official estimates of Australia's resident population, not the number of OAD movements or the number of visas granted. Care should be taken when using either OAD movements data or the number of visas granted, as these sources are not the best suited for measuring overseas migration in the context of contributing to official population estimates for Australia. For further information see Chapter 4, Improving Net Overseas Migration Estimation - Recent changes.

New data now available

Interstate migration data:
  • Annual time series data has been updated for interstate migration by arrivals, departures, state/territory, age and sex from 1997 to 2009 and are available electronically as a datacube (in Supertable format) from the Downloads tab of Migration, Australia 2008-09 (cat. no. 3412.0) on the ABS web site.
  • This datacube is scheduled to be updated every six months to make financial year and calendar year data available as soon as possible.

Net overseas migration data:
  • Annual time series data has been updated for NOM by arrivals, departures, state/territory, age and sex from 2004 to 2009, based on the improved methodology, and are available electronically as a datacube (in Supertable format) from the Downloads tab of Migration, Australia 2008-09 (cat. no. 3412.0) on the ABS web site.
  • This datacube is scheduled to be updated every six months to make financial year and calendar year data available as soon as possible.