The city Aussies are fleeing in droves – and the new location they are calling home

Sydneysiders are leaving the city in droves, while more and more residents from across the country are heading to Brisbane, according to new data.

About 30 percent of people who moved within Australia last year moved to the Sunshine State, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

While Brisbane brought in another 13,452 people through interstate migration, Sydney as many as 36,000 lost to the regions and other parts of the country.

This is evident from the ABS data Melbourne lost about 5,000 people to internal migration, almost half of which went to regional Victoria.

It also shows that a significant proportion of those who left greater Sydney and greater Melbourne moved to Brisbane or the region Queensland.

Sydneysiders are leaving in droves and flocking to the ‘Sunshine State’, according to the latest data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics

Of the 608,929 people who moved last year, almost 183,000 chose to live in Queensland.

About 107,496 came from another state or territory.

The Gold Coast is still a magnet for people migrating from other parts of Australia.

University of Queensland demographer Aude Bernard said Sydneysiders have been making the move further north since the 1970s.

She said internal migration has increased since the Covid pandemic, explaining that house prices are a major factor.

“Queensland’s increased appeal is partly due to the increased importance of lifestyle considerations since Covid, but also due to the differences in house prices, although the gap between Sydney and Brisbane is narrowing,” she shared. The Australian.

While Brisbane picked up another 13,452 people through interstate migration, Sydney lost as many as 36,000 people to the regions and other parts of the country.

‘Our research shows that a 10 percent increase in house prices is associated with an increase in outflow (from an area) of 4.45 to 5.7 percent.’

Liz Ritchie, director of the Regional Australia Institute, said “a societal shift is underway”.

‘With house prices high and the cost of living under pressure, many people are realizing that the regions can offer the lifestyle they want and the jobs they seek, minus the problems of big cities – such as long commutes, tolls and traffic,” she said.

New data on overseas migration shows that almost a million more people have arrived Down Under than left since the start of 2022.

At the end of last year, Australia’s population stood at 27 million.