25 April 2006

More Poms than Kiwis settling in Oz

New settlers to Australia increased again from the six months from July to December 2005. A total of 65 804 migrants arrived to call Australia home - this marks an 8.8 percent increase on the corresponding period.

Of the new settlers arriving in Australia, a signifcant number were skilled migrants. Skilled migration to Australia has increased by 60 percent the Department of Immigration reported.

Of the new settlers, Europe and predominantly the United Kingdom, contributed the largest number of settlers at 24.4 percent. This far outstripped the region of Oceania, mainly New Zealand, by over 8 percent, who contributed 16 percent of the new arrivals. Other major sources included Southeast Asia (13.8 percent), Northeast Africa (11.5 percent) and Southern Asia (mainly India) at 11.2 percent.

While New South Wales remains the most popular state for settler arrivals, with 34.9 per cent of the total migrants settling in Australia, this was down considerably from 37.1 per cent in the corresponding previous period. The share of settler arrivals was up for Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.

In the relevant six months, the number of permanent departures increased by 5.9 per cent to 31,900. The Department was clear to emphasize this figure underlines the pressing need to maintain a high quality skilled migration program, to ensure the future safeguarding of the skilled labour force.

Australia's skilled migration program is point-tested; to take the test and determine your eligibility, please go to our Online Assessment for Australia.