Australia’s population up 1.5% in December 2025
Australia's population grew by 1.5 per cent in the 12 months to December 2025, according to the latest figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Beidar Cho, ABS head of demography, said: ‘Our population grew to 27.8 million, with 412,500 more people than in December 2024.’
‘This was made up by natural increase, which is the number of births minus those who died, and overseas migration.’
Natural increase added 111,500 people, with births and deaths up by 3.6 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively.
Net overseas migration added 301,000 people over the year.
‘Western Australia continues to have the fastest growing population, with an annual rise of 2.2 per cent,’ said Ms Cho.
Tasmania had the slowest growth over the 12-month period, with a 0.5 per cent rise in population.
Today’s release includes two feature articles:
• The first explains the key differences between net overseas migration statistics and overseas arrivals and departures statistics.
• The second provides information on the population of people present in Australia.
| Population at 31 December 2025 ('000) | Change over previous year ('000) | Change over previous year (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | 8641.1 | 104.6 | 1.2 |
| Victoria | 7121.9 | 117.3 | 1.7 |
| Queensland | 5712.1 | 92.2 | 1.6 |
| South Australia | 1910.6 | 19.7 | 1.0 |
| Western Australia | 3076.5 | 65.5 | 2.2 |
| Tasmania | 579.1 | 2.9 | 0.5 |
| Northern Territory | 267.5 | 4.2 | 1.6 |
| Australian Capital Territory | 487.2 | 6.0 | 1.3 |
| Australia (a) | 27801.0 | 412.5 | 1.5 |
- Includes Other Territories comprising Jervis Bay Territory, Christmas Island, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Norfolk Island.
Media notes
- For any media requests, email media@abs.gov.au or call 1300 175 070 (9am-5pm Canberra time) with your questions and deadline.
- Please attribute the 'Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)' when using our data.
- Explore our Data Crash Course for guidance on finding and interpreting ABS data, and subscribe to our release notifications to stay updated.
- Information on how the ABS will release market sensitive releases during a website or API outage.