Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows a big jump in the number of South Africans who have immigrated to Australia over the past few years.

Using census data from 2011, Australia’s official statistical organisation noted that approximately 145,683 South Africans were living in the country – 8th behind the UK, New Zealand, China, India, Italy, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

The majority of migrants living in Australia are well established in the community, having been here for decades. In 2011, the median length of residence for migrants in Australia was 20 years, the stats bureau said.

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The average length of stay for South African migrants in Australia was 10 years in 2011.

The data indicated that as many 82.5% of migrants from SA had settled in the major cities. As many as 31,680 South Africans were living in Sydney, while 28,700 lived in Perth in 2011 – behind only UK and New Zealand migrants. Melbourne had 20,968 South African migrants.

The research showed that more than 7,500 Zimbabweans lived in Perth in 2011.

Read: These are the top countries people are leaving – including South Africa

Fast forward to 2016, and the bureau revealed that as at June 2015, as many as 178,700 were living in Australia, up more than 33,000 people from the 2011 data, and representing 0.8% of the total population.

A report recently published by New World Wealth showed that white millionaire numbers have decreased dramatically in SA – from 36,600 in 2007, to 21,200 in 2015.

Year-on-year, there were 10,900 fewer white millionaires in the country – a drop of 34%, the report said.

According to NWW, the reason for the sharp drop in white millionaires is primarily due to emigration. Major reasons for this include: turmoil in home country, security concerns and optimizing education of children.

It preceded a report from PPS which suggested that young educated South Africans plan to leave the country to work abroad, rather than plough their knowledge back into the local economy.

The company’s latest Student Confidence Index (SCI), conducted among over 1,500 South African students, revealed that 54% of the respondents plan to move abroad for work purposes in the next five years following their graduation.

More on emigration

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Rich white millionaires are fleeing South Africa

This one graph shows that South Africans are leaving the country