The Australian Department of Home Affairs publishes data via the Australian Bureau of Statistics on temporary visa holders in Australia. The most recent data comes from July 31, 2024. The highlights include:
- There were 2.77m visa holders in Australia as at the end of July (up from 2.55m same time last year);
- Students (500 visas) are here in force, with more than 696,000 student visa holders in Australia as at July 31, up from just under 655,000 same time last year and more than doubling in numbers from a low of close to 316,000 as at December 31 2021;
- Working Holiday Makers (417 and 462 visas) remain strong despite the winter “off-season” at 167,000, up from 131,000 same time last year and up from a low of 23,000 in December 2021;
- The 485 Graduate Visa Program has continued to be well received, with an uplift from 89,000 485 visa holders pre-COVID (December 2019) to 218,000 as at July 31 2024, up from just under 200,000 at the end of July 2023;
Visas and the Australian workforce
Australia’s unemployment rate crept up to 4.2% in July (from 3.7% same time last year), but still remains low and highlighting Australia’s dependence on temporary non-citizen labour.
Visitor Visas In Australia
Visitor visas, for whom do not have work rights, were at 341,00 at July’s end (up from 330,000 as at 31 July 2023) and this up on mid-winter visitors from 2019 (pre-COVID) when there were around 315,000 in Australia.
Working Holiday Visas Australia
Looking at 417 and 462 working holiday visas, which peaked at 141,000 as at December 31, 2019 and bottomed at 19,324 2 years later – we had 167,356 working holiday visas in Australia as at 31 July 2024 (up from 131,300 on the same day last year).
Assessing the quarterly trend, we can see a slight off-season/winter drop in July, but we’d expect a boost to record numbers close to 200,000 from now until the end of 2024 with peak-season summer ahead:
Student Visas
Student visas have recovered from a low of 315,949 as at December 31 2021, to 696,162 as at July 31, 2024 (up from 654,870 July 31 2023) easily exceeding the pre-COVID peak of 633,816 as at September 30 2019.
In summary, the upward trend in Students has been solid solid, but there have been a host of recent caps and changes to Student Visas which should see these numbers fall away from here.
Bridging Visas
After a dramatic decrease in the post election final quarter of 2022 (which saw a massive 44% drop in just 1 quarter as Home Affairs powered through the visa application backlog), Bridging Visas numbers have again been increasing as we head to the end of another election cycle with just under 300,000 (299,101) active in Australia as at the end of July. This is up significantly on 2023, when there were 176,965 active bridging visas as at July 31 that year.
Skilled employment visas
Then there’s the temporary resident, skilled employment visas, they dropped from 143,000 as at June 30 2019, to 94,500 over the subsequent 3 years, zapping another 50,000 workers from out labour market! This has now recovered to 174,391 at July’s end, up from 132,277 as at July 31, 2023.
Where Australian Temporary Visa Numbers Have Landed
As you can see from the above, temporary visa holder are still flooding into Australia! Students are back. Working Holiday Makers are here in big numbers. Skilled visas are well and truly recovering. Bridging visas have levelled out! Let’s see what comes of the student visa changes and the impacts over the next 12 months.
Data source data.gov.au
