The city Aussies are fleeing in droves - and the one we can't seem to get enough of

Australians are fleeing a congested big city in droves to escape high house prices and the ever-growing population as overseas immigration surges at a record pace. 

A record 518,100 overseas arrivals flooded into Australia during the last financial year, with a long-term influx of international students making up the bulk of new residents.

With Sydney and Melbourne hosting a bigger share of foreigners, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed the biggest states also had the biggest exodus.

NSW saw the most people leave with a staggering 116,166 abandoning the state in the year to June, with most of them leaving Sydney.

The figure made up 31 per cent of the 372,053 Australians who moved interstate in 2022-23. 

The number of residents leaving NSW was bigger than the 82,008 who moved into the state - meaning NSW lost 34,158 residents. 

Sydney's median house price of $1.397million is so dear a million dollars barely buys a home with a backyard 40km from the city.

This has seen many residents move to other states where seven figures buys a house near the beach or the city centre. 

By comparison, 76,051 people left Victoria, including Melbourne, for another state, while 74,188 Australians arrived from interstate.

But Queensland had a positive net interstate migration level of 32,255 based on 107,935 people arriving from another part of Australia as 75,680 left.

Mining-rich Western Australia had a positive net interstate migration intake of 11,630 with the 36,777 arrivals outweighing the 25,147 departures. 

The smaller states, however, had a bigger outflow than inflow when it came to interstate migration with South Australia having a net minus of 409, compared with Tasmania's much bigger net minus of 2,597.

The territories also lost more people than they gain with the Northern Territory losing 3,267 residents on a net basis to other parts of Australia compared with the Australian Capital Territory's net outflow of 1,591. 

When it came to overseas migration, the vast majority of the 518,100 arrivals - on a net basis - were long-term residents, classified as those staying for a year or more including many international students. 

That's because the permanent intake for 2022-23 was capped at 195,000, leaving 323,100 long-term arrivals.