Australia’s population has grown steadily in the past five years, new census data show, despite the number of new arrivals slumping due to Covid-19 border restrictions which blocked most travel to and from the country.

There were 25.4-million people resident in Australia in mid-August 2021 when the census was conducted, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 2-million more than in 2016 and more than double the level 50 years ago, in 1971. That number would likely have been higher without the pandemic, as the number of people immigrating plummeted in the past two years. 

More than 1-million people have moved to Australia since 2017, but 84% of those arrived before coronavirus, with only 166,000 people landing on its shores in 2020 and 2021, the ABS said on Tuesday. Australia has one of the largest foreign-born populations in the world. In 2021 51.5% of Australian residents were born overseas or had at least one parent who was born outside the country...