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Microburbs Property Data API

LGA - Area Statistics

Migration and population change

GET/v1/lga/{lga_name}/area-stats/migration5¢ per call

Where people are moving: arrivals, departures and net moves from elsewhere in Australia and from overseas, plus births, deaths and population, for every council area per year since 2016-17.

Coverage: 543 council areas; years to 30 June 2017 through 2025 (nine years). Period is the first day of the financial year. Current to 2025-06-30. Full description, field list and method: /v1/datasets/migration.

Authorization

Bearer tokentest

Sandbox key test works for the allowlisted GNAF + SAL — no signup.

Request

The only values you send. Fields under Responses below are what comes back — you never pass those.

Path parameters

lga_namestringrequired

Council (LGA) name exactly as /v1/lga/list returns it, e.g. `Lake Macquarie`.

Query parameters

fieldsstringoptional

Comma-separated subset of: net_internal_migration, internal_arrivals, internal_departures, net_overseas_migration, overseas_arrivals, overseas_departures, births, deaths, natural_increase, resident_population. Omit for all.

fromstringoptional

First period to include: 2020, 2020-Q3, 2020-07 or 2020-07-01.

tostringoptional

Last period to include, same formats as `from`.

Responses

Successful Response

application/json

DatasetValuesfields returned to you

datasetstringalways returned

Dataset slug; describe it with /v1/datasets/{slug}.

levelstringalways returned

suburb, lga or block.

areastringalways returned

Canonical name (or mesh-block code) of the area answered.

period_typestringalways returned

snapshot, year, financial_year, quarter or month.

as_ofstring · datealways returned

Date the dataset is current to. Values are never withheld for age; check this instead.

modelledbooleanalways returned

True when the figures are estimates from a model rather than counts or measurements.

fieldsarray of DatasetFieldSeriesalways returned

GET/v1/lga/{lga_name}/area-stats/migration

cURL

curl --request GET \
  --url 'https://api.microburbs.com.au/v1/lga/Lake%20Macquarie/area-stats/migration' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer test'

Example Responses

Show schema

{
  "data": {
    "dataset": "migration",
    "level": "lga",
    "area": "Lake Macquarie",
    "period_type": "financial_year",
    "as_of": "2025-06-30",
    "modelled": false,
    "fields": [
      {
        "field": "net_internal_migration",
        "name": "Net internal migration",
        "unit": "persons",
        "values": [
          {
            "period": "2022-23",
            "period_start": "2022-07-01",
            "value": 1301
          },
          {
            "period": "2023-24",
            "period_start": "2023-07-01",
            "value": 1614
          },
          {
            "period": "2024-25",
            "period_start": "2024-07-01",
            "value": 1535
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "field": "internal_arrivals",
        "name": "Internal arrivals",
        "unit": "persons",
        "values": [
          {
            "period": "2022-23",
            "period_start": "2022-07-01",
            "value": 12398
          },
          {
            "period": "2023-24",
            "period_start": "2023-07-01",
            "value": 12731
          },
          {
            "period": "2024-25",
            "period_start": "2024-07-01",
            "value": 12210
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "field": "internal_departures",
        "name": "Internal departures",
        "unit": "persons",
        "values": [
          {
            "period": "2022-23",
            "period_start": "2022-07-01",
            "value": 11097
          },
          {
            "period": "2023-24",
            "period_start": "2023-07-01",
            "value": 11117
          },
          {
            "period": "2024-25",
            "period_start": "2024-07-01",
            "value": 10675
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Successful Response200

application/json

About this dataset

543 council areas; years to 30 June 2017 through 2025 (nine years). Period is the first day of the financial year. Current to 2025-06-30; refreshed yearly.

What it is

Annual estimates of how many people moved into and out of each local council area, from other parts of Australia (internal migration) and from overseas, together with births, deaths, natural increase and the resident population, for the nine years from 2016-17 to 2024-25.

What it shows

For each council area and year to 30 June: internal arrivals, internal departures and net internal migration; overseas arrivals, departures and net overseas migration; births, deaths and natural increase; and the estimated resident population. Net figures are arrivals minus departures, so a negative number means the area lost people.

Why use it

Population movement leads housing demand. Use it to spot areas people are leaving for the regions or for the coast, councils where growth now depends on overseas arrivals, or places where deaths exceed births and only migration keeps the population growing. It backs a demand story for a suburb report, a developer's site selection, or a regional-relocation comparison.

How it is built

We use the official annual estimates of population change for local council areas, which combine births, deaths and overseas movements records with address changes from administrative data to estimate moves within Australia. Year 2024-25 is preliminary and is revised later. Internal moves include moves between councils in the same state, so internal arrivals across all councils add up to internal departures across all councils; the net internal figure sums to about zero nationally. Council boundaries follow the edition current when each year was published (2021 boundaries for 2016-17 to 2020-21, 2025 boundaries for 2021-22 onward) and are matched to our council names; a small number of councils that were merged, split or renamed may show a break between the two editions. Remote islands, non-geographic and 'no usual address' areas are not returned. Period is the first day of the financial year, so 2024-07-01 is the year to 30 June 2025.

Fields

Field	Unit	Description
`net_internal_migration` Net internal migration	persons	People who moved into the council area from elsewhere in Australia minus people who moved out, in the year to 30 June. Positive means the area gained residents from other parts of Australia.
`internal_arrivals` Internal arrivals	persons	People who moved into the council area from elsewhere in Australia (including from other councils in the same state) in the year to 30 June.
`internal_departures` Internal departures	persons	People who moved out of the council area to elsewhere in Australia (including to other councils in the same state) in the year to 30 June.
`net_overseas_migration` Net overseas migration	persons	Overseas arrivals minus overseas departures for the council area in the year to 30 June. Positive means more people arrived from overseas than left.
`overseas_arrivals` Overseas arrivals	persons	People who arrived in the council area from overseas in the year to 30 June and are counted as residents.
`overseas_departures` Overseas departures	persons	Residents who left the council area for overseas in the year to 30 June.
`births` Births	persons	Babies born to mothers usually living in the council area in the year to 30 June.
`deaths` Deaths	persons	Deaths of residents of the council area in the year to 30 June.
`natural_increase` Natural increase	persons	Births minus deaths in the year to 30 June. Negative means more deaths than births.
`resident_population` Resident population	persons	Estimated number of people usually living in the council area at 30 June.