Australia’s population growth has rocketed back to the boom rates of the mid-1950s, increasing by 2.4 per cent in the 12 months to June according to the latest figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
A record half million-plus net influx of foreign students, workers and permanent settlers came to these shores.
Net overseas migration adding 518,100, an increase of more than 150 per cent on the previous year and the highest nominal inflow ever recorded.
Source: ABS
At 30 June 2023, our population was 26.6 million people, an increase of 624,100 people over the year.
Putting that in perspective it’s like adding one and a half Canberra’s to our population with the need for all the accommodation, services, infrastructure and schools.
And this is at a time when construction of new dwellings is slumping.
This means we’ll be experiencing a housing shortage not just for 2024, but also for a number of years to come.
Beidar Cho, ABS head of demography, said:
“There were 737,200 overseas migration arrivals and 219,100 departures, adding 518,100 people to our population from overseas migration.
People arriving on temporary visas, such as international students were the main contributor to the arrivals, with the number of departures remaining low as the cycle of arrivals and departures have not yet returned to typical pre-pandemic patterns.”
Natural increase was 106,100 people, a decrease of 15.4 per cent from the previous year.
There were 295,900 births and 189,900 deaths registered in this time, with deaths increasing by 3.6 per cent and births decreasing by 4.1 per cent.
“Western Australia had the fastest rise in population, growing 3.1 per cent over the previous year.
This was followed by Victoria, which grew by 2.7 per cent, and Queensland which saw a 2.6 per cent rise,” Ms Cho said.
Tasmania saw the least growth, with a 0.3 per cent increase in population in the same period.
A return to the capital cities
In recent times we’ve seen a return to living in our capital city rather than regional towns.
And the exodus from Victoria seen in 2020 and 2021 has now ended, yet Queensland (+32,250) and Western Australia (+11,650) continued to attract the most net interstate migrants over the financial year.
