–Your friendly neighbourhood Stats Guy is still on parental leave for another three weeks. Instead of a big data driven column I’m showing you some of my favourite maps instead.  

As the world’s eyes are on the Australian Open, this week’s map reminds us of one of our favourite pastimes: making fun of the higher ups. 

This map shows the net migration balance between the US and the rest of the world.

Source: Lyman Stone

The US takes in more people from green countries than it loses to green countries, while it loses more people to purple countries than it gains.

There is only one purple country on this map and that’s Australia.

The map therefore clearly shows that Americans love Australia more than we love the US. You of course knew that all along but now you have data to prove it.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that there are about 110,000 US-born residents in Australia, while US Census Bureau data counts 98,000 Australians in the US.

All joking and US-bashing aside, the map shows how attractive Australia is as a destination and that brand Australia wasn’t damaged due to the pandemic. 

Australia has a lot of things to offer, plenty of jobs, plenty of large American companies, which provide an easy pathway for employment.

We are also an English-speaking nation, most US Americans only speak English, so they don’t have the world to choose from when emigrating. 

Demographer Simon Kuestenmacher is a co-founder of The Demographics Group. His columns, media commentary and public speaking focus on current socio-demographic trends and how these impact Australia. His latest book aims to awaken the love of maps and data in young readers. Follow Simon on Twitter (X), Facebook, LinkedIn for daily data insights in short format.