Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia

Latest release

Statistics on international travel arriving in and departing from Australia.

Reference period
January 2025
Released
18/03/2025
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    Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia, February 2025
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    Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia, March 2025
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    Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia, April 2025
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Key statistics

In January 2025:

  • Short-term visitor arrivals: 710,040 – an increase of 17.6% on one year earlier
  • Short-term resident returns: 1,544,890 – an increase of 10.9% on one year earlier
  • Total arrivals: 2,383,330 – an increase of 12.3% on one year earlier
  • Total departures: 2,031,060 – an increase of 16.3% on one year earlier

These statistics report on the number of international border crossings rather than the number of people. Most data in this release are rounded to the nearest 10. As a result, sums of components may not add exactly to totals.

Overseas Migration Statistics

This release presents statistics on all overseas arrivals and departures, which is not the same as overseas migration statistics.

If you are looking for ABS statistics on overseas migration, please refer to:

Arrivals and departures

  1. Provisional data for the most recent month has not had the full quality assurance methods applied as is done for the earlier months. Provisional data will be revised in the next issue of this publication.
  1. Provisional data for the most recent month has not had the full quality assurance methods applied as is done for the earlier months. Provisional data will be revised in the next issue of this publication.
  1. Provisional data for the most recent month has not had the full quality assurance methods applied as is done for the earlier months. Provisional estimates will be revised in the next issue of this publication.
1.4 Arrivals and departures by category of travel - selected months(a)(b)
Category of travelJan 2019 (no.)Jan 2023 (no.)Jan 2024 (no.)Jan 2025 (no.)Jan 2024 to Jan 2025 change (%)
Permanent arrivals7,99011,32015,54013,460-13.4
Long-term resident returns11,43012,47011,79012,7207.9
Short-term resident returns1,392,8501,097,9001,392,8901,544,89010.9
Long-term visitor arrivals74,49073,92098,080102,2404.2
Short-term visitor arrivals731,130412,410603,770710,04017.6
Total arrivals2,217,8901,608,0102,122,0702,383,33012.3
Long-term resident departures39,24035,98036,00042,52018.1
Short-term resident departures904,210719,610881,0701,041,37018.2
Long-term visitor departures27,45040,22034,08042,64025.1
Short-term visitor departures934,530581,040794,700904,53013.8
Total departures1,905,4301,376,8501,745,8402,031,06016.3
  1. For further information about categories of travel, see the Glossary section of the Methodology page.
  2. Category of travel data is not available from provisional estimates.

Visitor arrivals - short-term

Compares international visitor arrivals each month by source country and change at the state and territory level. Analysis in this section is undertaken on short-term trips (less than 1 year).

For visitor arrivals to Australia in January 2025:

  • A total of 710,040 short-term trips were recorded, an increase of 106,270 (17.6%) compared with the corresponding month of the previous year.
  • The number of trips was 2.9% lower than the pre-COVID level in January 2019.
  • China was the largest source country, accounting for 16.0% of all visitor arrivals.

Countries where visitors came from

The three leading source countries where visitors came from were:

  • China (114,660 trips)
  • New Zealand (96,250)
  • The USA (72,090).

Details

State or territory of stay

All travellers are asked their intended address in Australia upon arrival. For January 2025:

  • The highest number of visitor arrivals for short-term trips was observed for New South Wales (272,580)
  • The Northern Territory recorded the fewest (2,580).

2.3 Short-term visitor arrivals, state or territory of stay - January 2025

Loading map...

This map presents the number of short-term visitor arrivals in Australia in January 2025, by their state of intended stay.

2.4 Short-term visitor arrivals, state or territory of stay
State or territory of stayJan 2019 (no.)Jan 2023 (no.)Jan 2024 (no.)Jan 2025 (no.)Jan 2024 to Jan 2025 change (%)
NSW282,660159,130240,650272,58013.3
Vic.205,580109,950169,910204,09020.1
Qld141,46073,690105,180126,18020.0
SA22,48015,65020,68021,2002.5
WA58,91040,40050,30067,67034.5
Tas.8,5405,9207,0208,96027.5
NT3,4202,2602,5102,5803.0
ACT8,0305,4007,5006,740-10.1
Australia(a)731,130412,410603,770710,04017.6
  1. Includes Other Territories.

Visitor arrivals - state and territory

Compares international visitor arrivals each month by source country for each state and territory. Analyses in this section are undertaken on short-term trips (less than 1 year) unless otherwise stated.

New South Wales

Victoria

Queensland

South Australia

Western Australia

Tasmania

Northern Territory

Australian Capital Territory

Arrivals - international students

Compares international student arrivals each month by visa type.

  • In January 2025 there were 80,830 international student arrivals to Australia, a decrease of 2,070 (2.5%) students compared with the corresponding month of the previous year.
  • The number of student arrivals in January 2025 was 10.4% lower than the pre-COVID levels in January 2019.
  1. International student visa holders whether it be for a short-term (less than 1 year) or long-term (1 year or more) duration. This is not the same as when a traveller self reports 'education' as their main reason for journey.
  2. English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students.

Resident returns - short-term

Compares international resident returns each month by destination country and change at the state and territory level. Analysis in this section is undertaken on short-term trips (less than 1 year).

For residents returning from overseas in January 2025:

  • A total of 1,544,890 short-term trips were recorded, an increase of 152,000 (10.9%) compared with the corresponding month of the previous year.
  • The number of trips was 10.9% higher than the pre-COVID level in January 2019.
  • New Zealand was the most popular destination country, accounting for 13.0% of all resident returns.

Destination countries

The three leading destination countries residents returned from were:

  • New Zealand (201,380 trips)
  • Indonesia (170,750)
  • Japan (136,020).

Details

State or territory of residence

All travellers are asked their intended address in Australia upon arrival. For January 2025: 

  • The highest number of resident returns from short-term trips was observed for New South Wales (517,890)
  • The Northern Territory recorded the fewest (10,610).

12.3 Short-term resident returns, state or territory of residence - January 2025

Loading map...

This map presents the number of short-term resident returns in Australia in January 2025, by their state of intended residence.
 

12.4 Short-term resident returns, state or territory of residence
State or territory of residenceJan 2019 (no.)Jan 2023 (no.)Jan 2024 (no.)Jan 2025 (no.)Jan 2024 to Jan 2025 change (%)
NSW495,220390,650497,840517,8904.0
Vic.363,060290,260383,940418,0408.9
Qld255,880200,580239,320291,80021.9
SA53,67040,36053,79059,87011.3
WA175,700137,130171,470205,75020.0
Tas.8,9006,7408,66010,75024.2
NT13,1508,5309,11010,61016.5
ACT27,02023,39028,34030,0606.1
Australia(a)1,392,8501,097,9001,392,8901,544,89010.9
  1. Includes Other Territories.

Recent changes

November 2024 data revised

In January 2025, the ABS identified a data quality issue affecting the state and territory of stay/residence data item for November 2024. The issue was identified as being due to a processing issue with the source data which caused some arrival records to have their state or territory of residence or stay recorded incorrectly. To fix this issue, the ABS worked with Home Affairs and the Australian Border Force and the affected cards were re-processed and data re-supplied to the ABS. The ABS reprocessed and revised Overseas Arrivals and Departures data for November 2024.

Revised Overseas Arrivals and Departures data for November 2024 has been released in the December 2024 issue. Time series spreadsheets for Tables 1-17 were revised. This information can also be found in the Methodology page, in the History of changes section for the year 2024.

Data downloads

Notes

Data downloads

Data files

Data Explorer datasets

Two Overseas Arrivals and Departures datasets are available in Data Explorer.

Caution: Data in Data Explorer is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the reference period when using Data Explorer.

For information on Data Explorer and how it works, see the Data Explorer user guide.

Data notes

This release contains overseas movement data which should not be interpreted as 'persons'. See the Scope section, paragraph 1 in the Methodology for more detail.

The statistics in this release have been rounded. See the Confidentiality section in the Methodology for more detail.

Enquiries

For enquiries about these and related statistics, contact the Customer Assistance Service via the ABS website Contact Us page. The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS will handle any personal information that you provide to the ABS.

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 3401.0.

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