Australia’s population returned to strong growth in FY2022, following pandemic-affected 2021 when the population barely grew at all, thanks to border closures.

ABS data shows the re-opening of international borders in early 2022 led to an increase in Australia’s population to 25,978,935 people in June, up 1.1% (291,000) on the previous year.

“Glenn the Census Expert” of profile.id says this is still below the growth rates of between 1.5% and 1.8% recorded in the years prior to Covid, but it includes almost six months of the financial year when the overseas borders were still closed.

“72% of that annual population growth occurred in the second half of the financial year (the first six months of 2022), once the borders were fully open,” he says.

“Net overseas migration was 170,900. While it’s lower than in pre-pandemic years, it’s gone back to making up the majority (59%) of our population growth. The remainder is due to natural increase: more births than deaths.”