Number of migrants in the country down on previous year
New ABS data has shown there were almost 18,000 less migrants joining Australia's population year-on-year.
WITH immigration a hot topic, statistics released this week have shown there were less migrants added to Australia’s population this year then the same time last year.
The number of people in the country grew by 1.4 per cent in the 12 months to March 2026, according to the latest figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of population statistics, said: “Our population was 27.9 million people at March 31 2026, which is 392,700 more than the same time in 2025.
“Natural increase, that is the number of people born minus those who died, added 100,600 people to the population.
“Births and deaths were both up, 0.3 per cent and 3.1 per cent respectively.
“We saw 292,100 people added to our population from net overseas migration from March 2025 to March 2026. This compares with 309,500 people in the previous 12 months.”
Jarvis said Western Australia had the fastest growing population, up 2.1 per cent. Victoria was the second highest with growth of 1.6 per cent.
NSW grew 1.1 per cent, Queensland 1.6 per cent, South Australia one per cent, Northern Territory 1.5 per cent and the ACT was up 1.3 per cent.
Tasmania saw the slowest growth over the 12-month period, with a 0.6 per cent rise in population.
