Temporary visa holders in Australia
How many people are in Australia on a temporary visa, what the figure excludes, and why it is not the same thing as net overseas migration.
Both figures above are counts of people present on a given date. They are drawn from the Department of Home Affairs workbook BP0019, which reports temporary visa holders in Australia by visa category. The workbook's Applicant Type filter is set to "(All)", so dependants are included rather than primary applicants only.
What this figure is not
It is not net overseas migration. Net overseas migration was 292,100 for the year ending 31 March 2026. That is an annual flow: arrivals less departures over twelve months. The figures on this page are a stock: the number of people holding a temporary visa on one date.
The two measure different things and cannot be substituted for each other. The standing population is currently about 6.2 times the annual net flow, because a person who arrives in one year remains in the stock for as long as they hold a visa. Neither number is more correct than the other. They answer different questions, and the common error is to quote one as though it answered the other's.
What is excluded, and why
The lower figure removes 1,053,570 people in three categories. These exclusions are the reason the lower figure is the more conservative of the two.
| Excluded category | Holders | Why excluded |
|---|---|---|
| Special Category (NZ citizens) | 732,887 | New Zealand citizens hold an open-ended Special Category visa under the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement. They are not part of the managed migration programme and their numbers are not set by any planning level, so counting them would measure something no government chooses. |
| Visitor | 308,097 | Visitor visas carry no work rights and a stay measured in weeks. Including them would count tourists as migrants. |
| Crew and Transit | 12,586 | Crew and transit holders are in the country incidentally, usually for hours or days. |
| Total excluded | 1,053,570 |
The counted categories
The remaining 1,825,403 people hold visas that carry a stay measured in years and, in most categories, work rights. Shares are of the 2,878,973 grand total.
| Visa category | Holders | Share of all |
|---|---|---|
| Student | 564,029 | 19.6% |
| Bridging | 440,571 | 15.3% |
| Temporary Graduate | 272,613 | 9.5% |
| Temporary Resident (Skilled Employment) | 269,591 | 9.4% |
| Working Holiday Maker | 211,390 | 7.3% |
| Temporary Resident (Other Employment) | 59,636 | 2.1% |
| Other Temporary | 5,986 | 0.2% |
| Temporary Protection | 1,587 | 0.1% |
| Total counted | 1,825,403 | 63.4% |
Of those, 542,204 hold a Temporary Graduate or Skilled Employment visa, the two categories carrying full, uncapped work rights.
Cite this page
This page is updated when a new BP0019 quarter is released, and every revision is dated below. If you are quoting the figure, cite the page rather than copying the number, so your readers can see which quarter it came from.
Mindiam (2026). Temporary visa holders in Australia: the standing population. Derived from Department of Home Affairs BP0019, as at 31 August 2026. Retrieved from https://mindiam.com/figures/temporary-visa-population
Sources
- Department of Home Affairs, Temporary visa holders in Australia. BP0019, as at 31 August 2026. The Applicant Type filter is set to "(All)", so dependants are counted rather than primary applicants only.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics, National, state and territory population. Net overseas migration, year ending 31 March 2026. A flow, not a standing population.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics, Overseas Migration. 2024-25 release, years ending 30 June: 207,910 (2021-22), 538,340 (2022-23), 429,160 (2023-24), 305,570 (2024-25).
Revision history
- 2026-10-03 Page created. Figures as at 31 August 2026 from BP0019, with net overseas migration for the year ending 31 March 2026.
Mindiam publishes opinion on migration policy in The National Interest. This page is a reference and takes no position. Corrections: mindiam.com/corrections.