Net migration reversal to Australia

After a year of small net migration gains from Australia, the latest six months indicate small net migration losses to Australia, Stats NZ said today.

There were provisional net migration losses to Australia of 1,100 and 2,700 in the December 2020 and March 2021 quarters, respectively. These estimates use quarterly data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which is currently available up to March 2021.

"Although we had more people moving to Australia than arriving in the last two quarters, we still had a small net migration gain of 1,800 in the year ended March 2021. This was down from a peak net migration gain from Australia of 8,000 in the year ended September 2020," population indicators manager Tehseen Islam said.

International travel and migration patterns between Australia and New Zealand have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Governments in multiple countries, including New Zealand and Australia, introduced border and international travel restrictions in early 2020, affecting travel to and from those countries.

Historically, there has been a net migration loss of New Zealand residents to Australia, but this has fluctuated over time. For example, the net loss averaged 27,000 a year in the early 2010s compared with 3,000 a year in the late 2010s.

Trans-Tasman migration trends have been driven by departures from New Zealand to Australia. By comparison, flows from Australia to New Zealand have generally hovered at lower levels.

New Zealand citizens traditionally dominate trans-Tasman migration flows. In the year ended March 2021, they made up nearly 90 percent of migrant arrivals from Australia and about 70 percent of migrant departures to Australia.

Since the removal of departure cards in November 2018, the destination where migrants are going is no longer available. However, using data from the ABS we are publishing estimates of migrant departures from New Zealand to Australia (for pre-COVID information, see Migration to Australia halves).