Interstate migration in Australia: which states are people moving to?

People changed their home state 362,891 times in the 2025 calendar year. That is an average of about 990 moves a day, derived by dividing the annual total by 365¹. Each interstate move appears as an arrival in one state or territory and a departure from another, so total arrivals and departures are equal and the net gains and losses across the country sum to zero.

Australia recorded fewer interstate moves in 2025 than in any of the four preceding years. Interstate moves fell from 426,630 in 2021 to 395,968 in 2022, 386,034 in 2023, 383,997 in 2024 and 362,891 in 2025, a decrease of 15 per cent over four years, derived from the 2021 and 2025 totals¹.

The fall is part of a longer-term decline in interstate mobility. According to the Centre for Population, the share of the population moving interstate each year has been declining since the 1990s, when it averaged around 2 per cent, and it forecasts that 1.5 per cent of the population will move interstate in 2027-28². The Centre links the decline to an older population that is less likely to relocate and a higher share of dual-income households.

The estimates are modelled from administrative data rather than counted from a register. Some people update their address well after moving, which can affect the timing of the estimates³.

Population totals for each state, including the other growth components, are covered in the Australian population statistics article.

The largest state-to-state flow in 2025 was from New South Wales to Queensland. In 2025, 44,751 people moved from New South Wales to Queensland and 33,886 moved the other way. The combined flow of 78,637 people was the largest between any two states, and Queensland gained a net 10,865 people from New South Wales alone⁴. New South Wales accounted for 46 per cent of Queensland's 97,433 interstate arrivals, derived by dividing 44,751 by the state's total arrivals. A further 25,877 arrivals came from Victoria.

New South Wales lost people on its two biggest state-to-state flows. It lost a net 10,865 people to Queensland and a net 3,438 to Victoria, with 26,729 moves from New South Wales to Victoria against 23,291 the other way⁴. The flow between New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory was closer to balance, with 10,721 moves into the territory against 10,281 out, a net gain to the territory of 440 people.

Western Australia gained from every other state and territory in 2025. Its largest net inflows came from New South Wales at 4,442, Queensland at 2,327 and Victoria at 2,229, with smaller net gains from South Australia, the Northern Territory, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory⁴.

Most of Australia's greater capital cities recorded net losses to rest-of-state areas in 2025. Internal migration is a wider measure than interstate migration because it also counts moves within a state, such as a move from Sydney to the New South Wales coast. On the ABS provisional estimates for the four quarters of 2025 combined, Australia's greater capital cities recorded a combined net internal migration loss of 28,015 people⁶.

Greater Sydney recorded the largest net internal migration loss of any greater capital city in 2025. The city recorded a net internal migration loss of 28,139 people across 2025, split almost evenly between 13,807 lost to regional New South Wales and 14,332 lost interstate⁶. Greater Melbourne's loss had a different composition. The city lost a net 9,855 people to regional Victoria and gained a net 2,284 from the other states and territories, resulting in a combined net internal loss of 7,571; regional Victoria, in turn, lost a net 2,969 people interstate.

Greater Perth and Greater Brisbane were the only greater capital cities with net internal migration gains in 2025. Greater Perth added a net 8,650 people and Greater Brisbane 6,578. The largest rest-of-state gain was regional Queensland's 9,950, and regional Queensland's net interstate gain of 9,332 exceeded Greater Brisbane's 7,196⁶.

What these movements mean for dwelling demand is covered in the population growth versus housing supply article.

Across the 21 financial years from 2004-05 to 2024-25, Queensland recorded a net interstate migration gain every year, while New South Wales recorded a net loss every year. Western Australia and Victoria both moved between gains and losses.

Two states never changed direction. Queensland recorded a net interstate migration gain in each of the 21 financial years from 2004-05 to 2024-25, ranging from 6,172 in 2009-10 to 40,223 in 2020-21, and New South Wales recorded a net loss in each of the same 21 years, ranging from 6,751 in 2013-14 to 35,299 in 2022-23¹.

Western Australia moved in both directions across the series. The state gained people in every year from 2004-05 to 2012-13 and lost people in each of the six years from 2013-14 to 2018-19, with its largest loss, 11,901, in 2016-17. It has gained in every year since 2019-20, with its largest gain of 16,527 in 2022-23¹. The data does not identify the cause of these swings.

Victoria covered the widest range of any state or territory in the series. The state gained people in each of the 11 years from 2008-09 to 2018-19, with a maximum of 17,639 in 2015-16. In 2020-21 it recorded a loss of 35,622, the largest single-year interstate loss by any state or territory in the 21-year series. In the same year, Queensland recorded the largest single-year net gain in the series, at 40,223. By 2024-25 Victoria's loss had narrowed to 3,558¹.