CANBERRA, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Australia's population grew by over 650,000 people in 2023, according to official figures.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday revealed that Australia's population was 26.97 million people at the end of 2023.
It marks a population increase of 651,200 people, or 2.47 percent, in 2023 and follows population growth of 2.11 percent in 2022.
It is Australia's highest rate of population growth in a calendar year in over 20 years, surpassing 2.19 percent in 2008.
By comparison, prior to COVID-19 pandemic border closures, Australia's population grew by 1.49 percent in 2019 and by 1.56 percent in 2018. The country's average annual population growth has been below two percent in every decade since 1970.
Beidar Cho, head of demography at the ABS, said in a statement that net overseas migration to Australia drove 84 percent of population growth in 2023, with natural increase accounting for the remaining 16 percent.
There were 751,500 migrant arrivals to Australia in 2023 and 204,200 departures, resulting in a net migration of 547,300 people.
Western Australia (WA) had the highest rate of population growth of any state or territory in 2023 at 3.3 percent followed by Victoria at 2.8 percent.
The island state of Tasmania had the lowest growth at 0.4 percent. ■
