4102.0 - Australian Social Trends, 1998
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 03/06/1998
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Population Distribution: Interstate migration
MAIN NET INTERSTATE MIGRATION FLOWS(a) 1991-1996 INTERSTATE MOVERS(a) BY STATE OF ARRIVAL AND STATE OF DEPARTURE 1991-1996
Source: Population Growth and Distribution in Australia (cat. no. 2504.0 Census 1986, cat. no. 2822.0 Census 1991) and unpublished data, 1996 Census of Population and Housing, 1996. Where we move Although all States and Territories both gained and lost interstate movers, the resulting redistribution of people is unequal. Between 1991 and 1996, only two States gained population overall, Queensland and Western Australia (net gains of 145,500 and 17,300 respectively). The other States and Territories lost more people than they gained. Victoria had a net loss of 78,600 people, New South Wales 58,800, South Australia 18,300, Tasmania 6,300, the Northern Territory 700 and the Australian Capital Territory 100. Queensland was the most common destination of movers from all States and the Northern Territory, and the second most common destination of those leaving the Australian Capital Territory. The largest contributor to Queensland's net population gain was New South Wales, 127,700 people having moved north over the border. This was followed by Victoria which contributed 74,500 people. Like Queensland, Western Australia also had a net gain in population (17,300 people), while 54,500 people left, going mainly to Queensland (28%), New South Wales (26%) and Victoria (21%). The 71,700 who arrived came mainly from New South Wales (27%), Victoria (27%) and Queensland (18%). Victoria had the largest net loss of population: 78,600 people. Victorians who moved out went mainly to Queensland (39%), New South Wales (31%) and Western Australia (10%) while people moving into Victoria came mainly from New South Wales (38%), Queensland (22%) and South Australia (15%). New South Wales had a net population loss of 58,800 people, the result of 184,400 people arriving and 243,200 leaving. Those movers arriving in New South Wales came mainly from Queensland (32%), Victoria (31%) and the Australian Capital Territory (14%) while those leaving went mainly to Queensland (53%), Victoria (18%) and the Australian Capital Territory (11%). POPULATION TURNOVER(a), 1991-1996
(b) Percentage of the usual resident population at 6th August 1996. Source: Unpublished data, 1996 Census of Population and Housing. Population turnover The movement of people around Australia has economic and social impacts that extend beyond the families and individuals involved. Children are taken out of school and re-enrolled at their new location; houses are sold and bought or rental tenancies are cancelled and new ones entered into; jobs are left and started, or more or fewer people compete for available jobs. These changes require many adjustments in service and infrastructure provision to cope with more people or remain viable with fewer. The use of net migration to summarise the difference between people leaving and arriving removes attention from the number of people involved, especially when the number of people leaving and arriving are similar and produce a small net migration. An alternative measure is to use population turnover (the addition of people arriving and people leaving) and to relate it to the population of the State or Territory.2 The impact of internal migration is likely to be felt more in the States and Territories where the number of people leaving and arriving is large in relation to the population of that State or Territory. For example, the Northern Territory has a small resident population (about 175,300 people in 1996). Between 1991 and 1996 the Northern Territory experienced only a small net loss of less than 1,000 people from interstate migration. However, over that period 33,600 left the Territory and 33,000 arrived. These figures combine to give a population turnover of 66,600 people or about 38% of the usual resident population of the Northern Territory in 1996. Conversely, New South Wales had the largest population turnover, 427,700 people, but is the most populous State with over 6 million people in 1996. Its turnover represented 7% of its population in 1996. AGE-SPECIFIC INTER-STATE MOBILITY RATES(a) OF PEOPLE BETWEEN 1991 AND 1996 Source: Unpublished data, 1996 Census of Population and Housing. Who moves? All kinds of people move interstate. But some people are more likely to move than others. In general, previous research has demonstrated that young adults, people who are separated and/or divorced, unemployed people and recent immigrants from main English speaking countries have a greater likelihood of moving than people who are older, married or immigrants from non-English speaking countries2. Young adults in their twenties and thirties had the highest interstate mobility rates (the number of people of a specific age who moved interstate expressed as a proportion of the population of the same age) between 1991 and 1996. The highest rate, 8.4%, occurred at ages 25 and 26. However, because the age of the interstate mover was recorded in 1996 rather than when the move took place, the actual age at the time of the move would on average have been younger. The interstate mobility rate of children decreased with age. Since children usually only move because their parent/s move, this indicates that families with older children are less likely to move than those with younger children. After the ages of 25 and 26, the mobility rate decreased with increasing age. The interstate mobility rate of people around the traditional ages of retirement, 55-65, ranged from 2.9% to 2.3% respectively. The median age of interstate movers, 30.1 years, is a result of their young age profile. In comparison, the median age of all Australians in 1996 was 34.0 years. The differences in the ages of people moving into a State or Territory and people moving out are demonstrated by their median ages and their age structure. In Queensland and Western Australia the overall net gains occurred across all ages. In New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia the net losses also occurred across all ages. In Tasmania and the two Territories the differences in median age between interstate movers arriving and leaving were quite marked. Interstate movers arriving in Tasmania were older, having a median age of 32.2 years. Those leaving were younger, having a median age of 27.8 years. The pattern of net migration by age shows that Tasmania had net losses in all age groups under 60 years and a small net gain of 400 people over 60. In the 20-24 year age group the bias was strongly towards leaving Tasmania: 2,000 arrived and 4,900 left, resulting in a net loss of 2,900 people. In the Australian Capital Territory the largest net loss occurred among people aged 35-59: 2,100 people (12,200 arrived and 14,300 left). However, there was a small net gain of 3,100 people aged 15-24 (12,300 arrived and 9,200 left). Similarly, the Northern Territory, although having a small overall loss of 700 people, had a net gain of 3,600 people in the 20-34 age group and a net loss of people in all other age groups. Overall, people moving interstate between 1991 and 1996 were slightly more likely to be male. For every 100 female interstate movers between 1991 and 1996 there were 103 males. This reflects the high mobility rate of young males. There were differences in the sex ratios of particular States and Territories. The Northern Territory had a high male bias with 115 males arriving for every 100 females and 107 leaving for every 100 females. Western Australia also had a bias towards males with 111 males arriving for every 100 females and 105 males leaving for every 100 females. Only in the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria was there a slight bias towards females arriving with 98 males arriving for every 100 females and 99 males arriving for every 100 females respectively. SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF INTERSTATE MOVERS, 1991-1996
(b) Males per 100 females. Source: Unpublished data, 1996 Census of Population and Housing. Why we move The Census does not ask people why they moved. Surveys of movers have found that among the many reasons people move home to another State or Territory, the most common are related to employment and social amenity (the proximity to family, friends and people of similar ethnicity or religion).3 For example, a 1995 survey of people who had moved residence in the past 12 months in Queensland4 identified some of the motivations behind people's moves into that State. The majority of people who had moved from another State or Territory did so for reasons relating to employment (40%) and location (38%). The importance of these factors varied with the age of the movers. For young (aged 15-19) and old movers (aged 55 years or more) location was the most important factor while employment was the most important factor among people aged 20-54. Endnotes 1 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1997, Australian Demographic Trends 1997, cat. no. 3102.0, ABS Canberra. 2 Bell, Martin, 1995, Internal migration in Australia 1986–1991: Overview report, AGPS, Canberra. 3 Flood, J. Maher, C. Newton, P. Roy, J. 1991, The Determinants of Internal Migration in Australia, Indicative Planning Council for the Housing Industry, CSIRO, Melbourne. 4 Government Statisticians Office, 1996, 1995 Queensland Migration Survey, Queensland Government, Brisbane.
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