Australian Population Shows Mild Growth Based On Immigration
03 Oct 2017
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has recently released Data which says that the estimated population of residents in Australia had increased by 1.61 % (389,100), and had reached 24.512 million in the year which ended in March 2017. It is the fastest growth since 2014. Another fact noticed here is that the population of Australia has registered an increase of 40 % since the year 1990.
The growth, in the past one year, can be attributed to, net migration from abroad, as arriving foreign nationals were 231,900 which corresponds to an increase of 2.4 %.
While the natural increase has slowed down, the net foreign migration has increased. This shows a level seen immediately before the global recession when the economy in
Australia was resilient.
The figure for arrivals of overseas immigrants was 540,300 in the year, and those departing were 308,400.
Michael Workman, Senior Economist, Commonwealth Bank, said that the state where overall population increased most was Victoria, registering 2.43 % increase (149,000), in the year ending March 2017. The reasons for this fact were, increase in net foreign migration, and also net interstate migration. It is the highest annual percentage since 1960.
The figures also reveal that 78% of the population of Victoria preferred to live in Melbourne. According to Workman, based on the population, Melbourne is the second major city in Australia and has witnessed a growth of 120,000 per year. If this trend continues, it is set to become the largest Australian city in a few decades, and have a population more than Sydney.
For now, yearly growth rates vary from 1.5% to 1.8% in the New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, and Queensland. They have a compensatory influence, for slow growth levels seen in Western Australia, Northern Territory, South Australia and Tasmania.
It is a fact that increased population growth contributes to economic development, better revenue collection for the government. This also leads better rate of employment, more revenue from income tax/ GST and brings several other benefits also. It also ensures better handling of all demographic challenges that arise in the future.
