Population Flows, 2008-09

The most popular destination for Australians moving interstate continued to be Queensland, receiving the largest number of arrivals during 2008-09 (98,200 persons), followed by New South Wales and Victoria, with 85,900 and 67,400 arrivals respectively. The most common moves were between these three eastern states accounting for 47% of all interstate moves.

Table 6.3 shows that the most prevalent moves were from New South Wales to Queensland (49,100 persons or 14%). The counter flows from Queensland to New South Wales were the second largest (36,600 persons), followed by the flows from New South Wales to Victoria (23,900 persons) and Victoria to Queensland (21,000 persons). With the exceptions of Western Australia and Tasmania, all states and territories had higher flows to Queensland than from Queensland. Western Australia and Tasmania received slightly more people from Queensland than they lost to Queensland (70 persons and 40 persons respectively).

6.3 Interstate migration flows - 2008-09(a)
		Departures from:
		NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT	Total arrivals(b)
Arrivals to:
	NSW	. .	20 774	36 645	5 361	7 893	2 283	2 579	10 369	85 904
	Vic.	23 930	. .	18 618	7 066	9 088	3 616	2 434	2 672	67 424
	Qld	49 132	20 978	. .	6 557	9 011	3 618	5 305	3 581	98 182
	SA	5 102	5 908	4 411	. .	2 780	652	2 155	640	21 648
	WA	10 772	10 280	9 081	3 502	. .	1 634	2 579	888	38 736
	Tas.	2 703	3 216	3 654	899	2 016	. .	420	310	13 218
	NT	3 417	3 189	4 639	2 206	2 414	403	. .	444	16 712
	ACT	10 679	2 381	2 746	733	709	340	494	. .	18 082
	Total departures(b)	105 735	66 726	79 794	26 324	33 911	12 546	15 966	18 904	359 906
Net		-19 831	698	18 388	-4 676	4 825	672	746	-822	. .
. . not applicable
(a) Estimates for 2008-09 are preliminary - see paragraphs 9-10 of the Explanatory Notes.
(b) Excludes Other Territories - see paragraphs 55-56 of the Explanatory Notes.

Flows of people between the other states and territories were smaller than those between the mainland eastern states. In 2008-09, the Australian Capital Territory received its largest inflow of interstate migrants from surrounding New South Wales (10,700 persons). The reverse outflow from the Australian Capital Territory was also largest to New South Wales (10,400 persons). The majority of interstate moves from the Northern Territory tended to be towards neighbouring Queensland (5,300) with smaller numbers going to New South Wales and Western Australia (2,600 persons to each). More people moved from Western Australia to the eastern states than to neighbouring South Australia and the Northern Territory, with the highest number going to Victoria (9,100 persons). Most interstate moves from Tasmania were across the Bass Strait to Victoria and up to Queensland (3,600 to each).

The largest net flows in 2008-09 saw New South Wales recording net losses to Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia. In net terms, Queensland gained 12,500 persons from New South Wales while Victoria gained 3,200 persons and Western Australia gained 2,900 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 population (Figure 6.5).

In 2008-09, the Northern Territory experienced the greatest impact from both interstate arrivals and interstate departures. These flows represented 7.5% and 7.2% of the Northern Territory's population respectively. Likewise, the Australian Capital Territory experienced a 5.2% increase in its population through interstate arrivals but also a 5.4% loss from interstate departures. Victoria's population felt the lowest impact from interstate migration flows with a 1.3% increase from interstate arrivals and a 1.2% decrease from interstate departures.

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