Temporary visa holders in Australia methodology

This release provides information on the social and economic characteristics of people who held a temporary visa and were present in Australia on Census Night, 10 August 2021. The release particularly focuses on those temporary visa holders who indicated they would usually be resident in Australia for at least a year. This population is referred to as temporary residents.

The statistics in this publication were compiled from the 2021 Australian Census and Temporary Entrants Integrated Dataset (ACTEID). ACTEID links data from the 2021 Census of Population and Housing (Census) with temporary visa holder data from the Department of Home Affairs (Home Affairs).

The ABS acknowledges the continuing support from Home Affairs for the ACTEID project. The provision of data as well as ongoing assistance provided by the agency is essential to enable this work to be undertaken.

For information about the 2021 Census and collection methodology please refer to Census methodology.

ACTEID represents select types of temporary visa holders who were present in Australia on Census Night (10 August 2021). Specifically, ACTEID only includes the following temporary visa subclasses:

Temporary skilled

• Temporary Work (Skilled) (457)
• Temporary Skill Shortage (482)

Student

• Student (Temporary) (500)
• Schools Sector (571)
• Vocational Education and Training Sector (572)
• Higher Education Sector (573)
• Postgraduate Research Sector (574)
• Non-Award Sector (575)

Special Category (New Zealand citizen)

• Special Category (444)

Working Holiday Maker

• Working Holiday (417)
• Work And Holiday (Temporary) (462)

Other temporary

• Bridging A (010)
• Bridging B (020)
• Bridging C (030)
• Bridging (General) (050)
• Other bridging visas
• Temporary Work (Short Stay Specialist) (400)
• Training And Research (402)
• Temporary Work (International Relations) (403)
• Investor Retirement (405)
• Training (407)
• Temporary Activity (408)
• Retirement (410)
• New Zealand Citizen Family Relationship (Temporary) (461)
• Skilled - Recognised Graduate (476)
• Temporary Graduate (485)
• Temporary Protection Visa (785)
• Safe Haven Enterprise (790)
• Sponsored Parent (Temporary) (870)
• Diplomatic (Temporary) (995)

Statistical data integration involves combining information from different data sources such as administrative, survey and/or census to provide new datasets for statistical and research purposes.

Data linking is a key part of statistical data integration and involves combining records from different datasets using shared data items. Data linkage is performed on unit records that represent individual persons.

The ABS enforces a robust framework of protections for its data linking projects that work together to protect privacy, strengthen the security of data, and meet legislative requirements. For more information, see the Privacy section below.

The 2021 temporary visa holder records were linked to the 2021 Census data using a deterministic linkage method.

Deterministic data linkage, also known as rule-based linkage, involves assigning record pairs across two datasets that match exactly or closely on common data items.

At the completion of the linkage process 1,075,852 (65.6%) out of 1,638,838 records from the temporary visa holder data were linked to the 2021 Census data.

The estimates in this release have been calibrated to the total number of temporary visa holders in Australia on Census Night, to help account for unlinked records. This is accomplished by assigning a weight to each linked record in ACTEID to represent the units that did not link. This calibration helps the estimates be more representative of all temporary visa holders in Australia on Census Night. The calibration methodology in 2021 is broadly consistent with the 2016 method and accounts for characteristics such as age, sex, visa information and country of birth.

The ABS respects individual’s rights to privacy and is committed to keeping information safe and secure. The ABS is subject to legislation protecting the confidentiality of information, including the Census and Statistics Act 1905 which makes it a criminal offence to breach secrecy provisions.

For more information see the 2021 Census Privacy Statement, and Keeping integrated data safe.

In accordance with the Census and Statistics Act 1905, data are subject to a confidentiality process before release. This is undertaken to avoid releasing information that may allow the identification of individuals, families, households, dwellings, or businesses.

One technique used to guard against identification of confidential information is the random adjustments to cells with very small values. In these cases, data may not sum to totals but the size of the difference between summed cells and the relevant total will generally be small.

For more information see Introduced random error / perturbation.

While the linkage between the temporary visa holder data and the 2021 Census is of high quality, some records could not be linked, and there is also a chance of linkage error (false links).

False links are influenced by the similarity of linking information in records that represent different individuals. This may be due to random chance but is primarily driven by low-quality information in linking data items: the less information available to discriminate two individuals, the more likely they will match by chance. The calibration process does not mitigate against this error.

Although approximately one third of records could not be linked in ACTEID, calibration will help account for this. For more information, see the Calibration section in Processing the data.

The 2021 Census was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when international borders were closed and much of the Australian population was required to isolate at home under health directives.

The Australian Government imposed travel restrictions on those travelling to or from Australia from March 2020, which were gradually lifted from 1 November 2021. This impacted the number and type of temporary visa holders who were present in Australia on 10 August 2021.

For more information on Australia’s international migration see Overseas Migration.

The Census is the most comprehensive snapshot of Australia and tells us about the economic, social, and cultural make-up of the country. The 2021 Census occurred at a unique time for Australia and the data used in ACTEID allows us to understand outcomes of temporary visa holders who were present in Australia during the pandemic.

For more information on the collection of 2021 Census data during the pandemic see COVID-19 and the Census.

Information about the data quality of the Census is available on the ABS website in Understanding data quality.

Estimates in this release are based on temporary visas held on 10 August 2021. Visa conditions and rules can vary over time, which should be noted if comparing estimates to the 2016 ACTEID. For example, student visa work restrictions were relaxed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, including during the 2021 Census.

Estimates from the 2021 ACTEID may differ from Home Affairs temporary visa holder data and from other ABS collections. For example, Census includes data for all people in Australia on Census Night, whereas ACTEID only includes data for temporary visa holders. The Census can also be used to look at a range of cultural diversity characteristics, but unlike ACTEID, it does not contain visa information.

For more information on migrant data sources see Understanding migrant statistics in the Census and other data sources.

Estimates from ACTEID will also differ from Census and visa data obtained from the Multi-Agency Data Integration Project (MADIP) product. This is because: 

• The two products use a different linkage methodology. Specifically, ACTEID directly links temporary visa holder records to Census, while MADIP links all datasets to the person linkage spine. See Multi-Agency Integration Project (MADIP) for more information on MADIP linkage.
• ACTEID, unlike MADIP, is calibrated to temporary visa holder data from Home Affairs.