NOM AND THE STATES AND TERRITORIES

In 2009-10, NOM contributed the greatest number of people to the most populous states: New South Wales with a net of 66,000 persons, followed by Victoria (60,400) and Queensland (39,700). The Northern Territory had the lowest with a net of 1,300 persons.

Median age

For those contributing to NOM in 2009-10, the median ages varied between arrivals, departures and between each of the states and territories. Overall, travellers arriving in Australia were younger than those departing as was the case for each of the states and territories. The highest median ages for NOM arrivals were recorded from travellers migrating to the Northern Territory (29.0 years), New South Wales (26.9 years) and Western Australia (26.8 years). The lowest median age was recorded for NOM arrivals to Victoria (26.0 years). The median age for all NOM arrivals was 26.5 years.

In comparison, the highest median ages for NOM departures were for travellers from the Northern Territory (30.4 years), followed by the Australian Capital Territory (29.3 years) and New South Wales (28.8 years). The lowest median ages for NOM departures were from Victoria (27.5 years). This compares to an overall median age for NOM departures of 28.3 years, 1.8 years higher than arrivals.

Sex ratio

The sex ratio of travellers who contributed to NOM in 2009-10 also varied between arrivals, departures and between the states and territories. Overall, more males travel across Australia's border than females. The highest sex ratios recorded for NOM arrivals were from travellers migrating to the Northern Territory (113 males per 100 females) and the Australian Capital Territory and Western Australia (105 each). The lowest sex ratios were recorded for NOM arrivals to Queensland (97 males per 100 females), and Victoria and New South Wales (99 each). Males and females had an equal ratio (100 males per 100 females) for all NOM arrivals to Australia in 2009-10.

Conversely, the highest sex ratios recorded for NOM departures were from the Northern Territory (146 males per 100 females) and Western Australia (114). In contrast, the lowest sex ratios for NOM departures were recorded in Tasmania (102) and South Australia (103). The sex ratio for all NOM departures from Australia in 2009-10 was 106 males per 100 females.

3.6 NOM, Selected characteristics - State & territory - 2009-10(a)
	NOM		NOM Arrivals			NOM Departures
			Overseas arrivals	Median age	Sex ratio(b)	Overseas Departures	Median age	Sex ratio(b)
State or territory	no.	%	no.	years	ratio	no.	years	ratio
NSW	66 034	30.6	154 680	26.9	98.9	88 646	28.8	104.0
Vic.	60 420	28.0	116 722	26.0	99.4	56 302	27.5	105.1
Qld	39 696	18.4	89 337	26.2	97.0	49 641	28.0	105.7
SA	15 371	7.1	26 139	26.3	101.1	10 768	27.7	102.9
WA	28 243	13.1	58 655	26.8	104.5	30 412	28.6	114.3
Tas.	1 831	0.8	4 131	26.7	99.1	2 300	28.7	101.8
NT	1 292	0.6	5 274	29.0	113.0	3 982	30.4	146.4
ACT	2 693	1.2	8 104	26.5	104.7	5 411	29.3	104.7
Australia(c)	215 576	100.0	463 044	26.5	99.7	247 468	28.3	106.3
(a) Estimates for 2009-10 are preliminary - see paragraphs 9-10 of the Explanatory Notes.
(b) Males per 100 females.
(c) Includes other territories.

Overseas flows

Much of the migration of travellers across Australia's border occurred within the more populated states as seen in figure 3.7. New South Wales had the largest number of NOM arrivals (154,700 persons) and the largest number of NOM departures (88,600 persons). Conversely, Tasmania had the smallest flows with both the smallest number of arrivals (4,100 persons) and the smallest number of departures (2,300 persons).

The combined flows of overseas migration (arrivals and departures) show there were 710,500 people crossing Australia's border who impacted on NOM in 2009-10. Of these, there were 463,000 arrivals contributing to NOM (NOM arrivals) and 247,500 departures contributing to NOM (NOM departures).

However, the effect of these flows varies for each state and territory. In order to assess this effect, it is useful to consider the size of each flow as a proportion of a state or territory's population (figure 3.8).

Western Australia experienced the greatest effect proportionally from NOM arrivals in 2009-10, with a 2.6% increase to its population, while the Northern Territory showed a 1.7% loss from NOM departures, the largest loss of all the states and territories. In contrast, the effect NOM arrivals and NOM departures had on Tasmania's population was small at 0.8% and 0.5% respectively.

Population turnover

In 2009-10, the population turnover due to overseas migration (gross overseas flows in relation to size of the population) was the highest in the Northern Territory at 4.1% (i.e. NOM arrivals and NOM departures combined). This was followed by Western Australia (3.9%), and the Australian Capital Territory (3.8%). Of the remaining states and territories, New South Wales's population turnover from overseas migration was 3.4%, Queensland's and Victoria's population turnover was 3.1% each and South Australia 2.3%. Tasmania had the lowest population turnover due to NOM in 2009-10 at 1.3%.

NOM rates (quarterly)

Net overseas migration has a notable impact on the population of Australia's states and territories. The net overseas migration rate (NOM per 1,000 population) shows how the impact varies between the states and territories and over time.

Using data based on the improved methodology for NOM with the time series starting from December quarter 2003 (i.e. all quarterly NOM data currently available using the 12/16 month rule), the quarterly NOM rates for each state and territory are presented in figures 3.9 to 3.11.

The three graphs (figures 3.9 to 3.11), clearly show the seasonality of overseas migration with the March quarter providing the highest rates each year for the majority of the states and territories.

Figure 3.10 shows that the quarterly NOM rates for Western Australia displayed strong seasonality for the period between December quarter 2003 to June quarter 2010. During this time period almost all states and territories recorded their highest NOM rate in March 2008 or March 2009. The exceptions were Western Australia which recorded its peak at 6.3 per 1,000 population in the September quarter 2008 (figure 3.10) and the Northern Territory which recorded its peak at 3.7 per 1,000 population in June 2009. The peak national NOM rate was recorded in March quarter 2008 at 4.4 per 1,000 population. Compared to March quarter 2009, NOM rates in March quarter 2010 for all states and territories and Australia were lower. The largest decline was recorded in Western Australia with a difference of -2.5 per 1,000 population.

For Western Australia, the NOM rates over time were higher than the total Australian rate, whereas rates in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland were fairly consistent with that of Australia (figure 3.9). The remaining states and territories were below the national rate, with Tasmania and the Northern Territory (figure 3.11) not displaying as strong seasonality as that shown by the other states and territories.

1 DIAC 2010, Population Flows: Immigration aspects 2008–09 edition, Ch 3. <back
2 DIAC 2005, Population Flows: Immigration aspects 2003–04 edition, Ch 5 p 62. <back
3 DIAC 2009, Population Flows: Immigration aspects 2007–08 edition, Ch 3 p 55. <back
4 DIAC 2010, Population Flows: Immigration aspects 2008–09 edition, Ch 2 p 45. <back
5 DIAC 2009, Population Flows: Immigration aspects 2007–08 edition, Ch 3 p 59. <back
6 DIAC 2009, Population Flows: Immigration aspects 2007–08 edition, Ch 3 p 53. <back
7 DIAC 2009, Population Flows: Immigration aspects 2007–08 edition, Ch 2 p 24. <back
8 DIAC 2010, Population Flows: Immigration aspects 2008–09 edition, Ch 4 p 80. <back

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