POPULATION FLOWS, 2009-10

The most popular destination for Australians moving interstate continued to be Queensland which received the largest number of arrivals during 2009-10 (86,400 persons). The next largest arrivals occurred in New South Wales followed by Victoria, with 83,000 and 63,100 arrivals respectively. The most common moves were between these three eastern states accounting for 47% of all interstate moves.

5.3 INTERSTATE MIGRATION FLOWS - 2009-10(a)
		Departures from:
		NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT	Total arrivals(b)
Arrivals to:
	NSW	. .	20 088	35 355	4 989	7 525	2 118	2 969	9 938	82 982
	Vic.	22 686	. .	17 594	6 544	8 109	3 185	2 451	2 527	63 096
	Qld	42 044	18 605	. .	5 823	8 295	3 193	5 208	3 237	86 405
	SA	4 628	5 552	4 548	. .	2 458	634	2 257	624	20 701
	WA	8 297	8 422	8 696	2 849	. .	1 443	2 605	879	33 191
	Tas.	2 405	2 731	3 341	691	1 660	. .	419	260	11 507
	NT	3 320	2 783	4 482	2 007	2 284	315	. .	471	15 662
	ACT	10 142	2 360	2 813	762	898	297	595	. .	17 867
	Total departures(b)	93 522	60 541	76 829	23 665	31 229	11 185	16 504	17 936	331 411
Net		-10 540	2 555	9 576	-2 964	1 962	322	-842	-69	. .
. . not applicable
(a) Estimates for 2009-10 are preliminary - see paragraphs 9-10 of the Explanatory Notes.
(b) Excludes Other Territories - see paragraphs 55-56 of the Explanatory Notes.

Table 5.3 shows that the most prevalent moves were from New South Wales to Queensland (42,000 persons). The counter flows from Queensland to New South Wales were the second largest (35,400 persons), followed by the flows from New South Wales to Victoria (22,700 persons) and Victoria to New South Wales (20,100 persons). In terms of net flows, Queensland gained the highest number of interstate movers from New South Wales with 6,700 persons. The next highest gain was Victoria from New South Wales with 2,600 persons. With the exceptions of Western Australia and Tasmania, all states and territories had higher flows to Queensland than from Queensland.

Flows of people between the mainland eastern states were larger than those between the other states and territories. Queensland, being the main beneficiary from interstate migration, was the prime destination for people departing from Western Australia (8,300 persons), the Northern Territory (5,200 persons) and Tasmania (3,200 persons) in 2009-10. The Australian Capital Territory received its largest inflow of interstate migrants from its neighbour, New South Wales with 10,100 persons. The reverse flow from the Australian Capital Territory to New South Wales (9,900 persons) was also the largest for the territory. A cross-border exchange between South Australia and Victoria was also evident. The interstate migration outflow from South Australia to Victoria was the highest recorded for the state (6,500 persons). Conversely, South Australia received its highest inflow from Victoria (5,600 persons).


Interstate flows as a proportion of population

The impact of interstate migration flows on each state and territory population varies. One way of measuring the effect is to calculate each flow as a proportion of each state or territory's population (figure 5.4).

In 2009-10, the Northern Territory experienced the greatest impact from both interstate arrivals and interstate departures. These flows represented 6.9% and 7.2% of the Northern Territory's population respectively. The Australian Capital Territory experienced the next greatest impact with a 5.0% and 5.1% change in its population through interstate arrivals and departures respectively. Victoria's population felt the lowest impact from interstate migration flows with a 1.1% change through both its interstate arrivals and departures.

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