Is Australian immigration really falling?

Friday 19 September 2025

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the official population and immigration data for the March quarter of 2025.

The ABS showed that Australia’s population grew by 144,300 in Q1 2025, which was down from 156,800 in Q1 2024. However, the Q1 2025 increase was still stronger than any quarter of population increase in Australia’s history before the pandemic.

Because Q1 2025 was lower than Q1 2024, annual population growth slowed to 423,400:

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.