The contributions of immigration to demographic change across cities and regions in Australia

Abstract

In the context of low fertility and population ageing, many countries look to immigration to address labour shortages and reduce the effects of population decline. While the short-term effects of immigration are relatively well understood, the long-term demographic consequences of high and sustained immigration are still undetermined. In this paper, we highlight the major contributions that immigration has made to population change across 11 geographic areas in Australia from 1981 to 2021. The analyses use recently reconciled demographic component data for 18 overseas-born subgroups and the Australia-born population by age and sex. While net international migration of overseas-born people contributed approximately 56 per cent of overall population growth over the 40-year period, immigrants also made sizeable contributions to other demographic processes: 28 per cent of births, 31 per cent of deaths, and 17 per cent of interregional migration. This research provides new insights into both period-specific and long-term demographic effects of diverse immigration streams across Australia's cities and regions.