New Zealanders and international students make up more than 70 per cent of people living temporarily in Australia, a new Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) snapshot of temporary residents in Australia shows.

Of the 1.6 million temporary residents in Australia, less than 8 per cent are asylum seekers on bridging visas.

Typically, temporary residents in Australia are younger, better educated and less likely to be unemployed than Australian citizens, the snapshot, based on the 2016 Census shows.

It shows there were 1,635,503 temporary entrants in Australia on Census night, 2016.

These included 1,500,409 temporary residents and 135,093 overseas visitors.

Around 41 per cent, or almost 665,000, are Special Category (New Zealand citizen) visa holders and 30 per cent, or 487,000, were student visa holders.

Ten per cent were temporary work or skilled visa holders and 8 per cent were working holiday makers.

Just over half (53 per cent) of temporary residents were male and there were slightly more males than females in all visa groups except working holiday makers, where 52 per cent were female.

Temporary residents are younger than the general population with a median age of 28 years – ten years younger than the median age of all Australians.

Student visa holders were the youngest with a median age of 24 years and Special Category (New Zealand citizen) visa holders were the oldest at 37.

More than four fifths, or 81 per cent, of temporary residents lived in capital cities compared with 67 per cent of all Australians and student visa holders were most likely to live in capital cities (92 per cent).

Unsurprisingly, least likely to live in capital cities were working holiday makers (68 per cent).

Twenty-seven per cent of temporary residents lived in Sydney, 24 per cent in Melbourne and 14 per cent in Brisbane.

The top three countries of birth among temporary residents were New Zealand (32 per cent), followed by China (11 per cent), and India (8 per cent).

Among student visa holders, most were born in China (27 per cent), followed by India (13 per cent) and Vietnam (5 per cent).

Among temporary work or skilled visa holders, most were born in India (20 per cent), England (12 per cent) and China (7 per cent).

Among working holiday makers, most were born in South Korea (17 per cent) followed by Taiwan (16 per cent) and England (14 per cent).

The most common countries of citizenship for temporary residents were New Zealand (42 per cent) followed by China (11 per cent), India (8 per cent), United Kingdom (4 per cent) and South Korea (3 per cent).

More than half (63 per cent) of temporary residents in Australia in 2016 had arrived since 2011 and just under a quarter (23 per cent) arrived in Australia in 2006 or earlier.

According to the Census snapshot, 57 per cent of temporary residents spoke a language other than English at home and student visa holders were most likely to speak a language other than English at home (92 per cent).

But 84 per cent of all temporary residents reported speaking English well or very well.

More than half, or 57 per cent, of temporary residents held a post-school qualification, with 33 per cent having a Bachelor Degree or higher level qualification.

The ABS figures show 68 per cent of temporary residents aged 15 and over were in the labour force.

Temporary work or skilled visa holders were the most likely to be in the labour force (86 per cent) and had the lowest unemployment rate (4 per cent).

Eighty-four per cent of working holiday makers were in the labour force and around half of student visa holders were in the labour force.

Temporary residents were most likely to be employed as labourers (19 per cent), professionals (16 per cent) and technicians and tradies (15 per cent).

The median personal weekly income of all adult temporary residents was $542 per week and temporary work or skilled visa holders had the highest median personal weekly income at $1,143 per week.

Most temporary residents (97 per cent) lived in private dwellings, although 10 per cent of working holiday makers and 6 per cent of Student visa holders lived in non-private dwellings, such as residential colleges, boarding houses or boarding schools, the ABS snapshot showed.

Laurie Nowell

AMES Australia Senior Journalist