One immigrant per minute arrived in Australia in 2025, new official data shows, and migration was responsible for 73% of the annual population growth.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released on Thursday showed there were 563,500 overseas migration arrivals during the 2025 calendar year, 32,300 (5.4%) fewer than in 2024.
During the same period 262,600 people left Australia, a decrease of 1% since the previous year, resulting in net overseas migration of 301,000 – well above the pre-Covid average.
The natural increase, including 300,000 births and 188,400 deaths, was 111,500, or 27% of the total annual growth of 412,500 people, which pushed the total population to 27,801,023 by the end of 2025. It hit 28 million on June 2 this year.
Peter Strachan, National President of lobby group Sustainable Population Australia, which wants net overseas migration cut to between 50,000 and 70,000 a year, said the new figures showed Labor had been lying about bringing immigration numbers down.
“Since coming into office the Albanese government has repeatedly claimed that Australia’s record high immigration intake was just a ‘corrective’ measure following the COVID years and that a slowdown was just around the corner. The ABS data tells us a different story,” he said.
“On taking office in early 2022, net overseas migration was running at an annual pace of 207,900, this most recent data from the ABS reveals that after falling from a destructive pace of over 500,000 per annum, the pace remains higher at over 300,000 per annum.
“If major grocery chains can be prosecuted for falsely claiming prices are down when they have actually risen, surely the ruling Labor Government should face the same penalties for saying that immigration has fallen on its watch?”
Labor regularly claims to be bringing migration numbers down, and Treasurer Jim Chalmer said again on Thursday that migration was “already down 45% since its peak”, even though the peak occurred during his government.
Shadow immigration minister Jonno Duniam, who announced earlier in the week he will be quitting politics, said Labor had failed to keep its promises on migration.
“This is not a one-off number. Net overseas migration has now remained above 300,000 for 14 straight quarters,” he said.
“Labor has been told many times that its migration settings have been unsustainable. But it has ignored that advice, lost control of the system, and every new release of data confirms the same problem.”
SPA spokesperson Michael Bayliss said Labor had “lost all control” of immigration and appeared to be “operating in a state of delusion”.
“The impacts of rapid population growth are felt everyday by ordinary Australians. These include the cost-of-living crisis, housing insecurity, productivity destroying increased travel congestion and a reduction in the quality of infrastructure and public services,” he said.
“The Albanese government could have controlled all these mounting crises by lowering immigration. Instead, it has chosen to dither, deny and obfuscate. Australians are seeing through the hubris and Labor is digging its own grave come next Federal election, as indicated by recent polling.”
Labor has exceeded every one of its net overseas migration forecasts since forming government under Mr Albanese, allowing more than 2.5 million new immigrants into the country and presiding over net overseas migration of 538,000 in 2022-23, 429,000 in 2023-24, and 306,000 in 2024-25.
Header image: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a mass citizenship ceremony in Melbourne (Facebook).
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