New population data from the 2016 ABS Census shows Victoria’s population growing faster than previously estimated. ABS has added close to 109 000 (or 1.8 per cent) to the state’s population.
Victoria recorded the largest annual growth among the states at 2.4 per cent in the year to December 2016. This rate is the equal highest on record, with the same annual rate recorded in the previous two quarters.
The state’s population growth rate has outpaced the national average since 2011. Nationally the annual growth rate was 1.6 per cent, a slight increase on the previous quarter’s growth rate of 1.5 per cent.
New South Wales and Queensland recorded the equal second highest annual growth rate of 1.5 per cent.
Melbourne is soon predicted to outgrow Sydney. Since 2011, 1,656 new people called Sydney home every seven days, where 1,859 arrived in Melbourne.
Net international migration was the largest contributor to Victoria’s population growth, adding 74,051 representing over half of the state’s population increase.
For the first time in Australian history, the majority of people born in another country are from Asia, not Europe. England and New Zealand remain the most common countries of birth after Australia, but a growing number are born in China and India.
More than one quarter of Australians were born in another country, and those either born outside of Australia or have one foreign-born parent account for almost half of all Australians.
Australia has a larger proportion of people born overseas (26 per cent) than the UK (13 per cent) the US (14 per cent), Canada (22 per cent) and New Zealand (23 per cent).
Victoria continues to attract a large portion of the nation’s international migrants, accounting for 35.4 per cent of the national total over the year.
Net interstate migration also increased compared to the previous year, adding 18,000 persons in 2016, the highest rate of all the states. Queensland (14,652) and Tasmania (467) were the only other states to record a positive net interstate migration.
Victoria’s natural increase grew by 43,439 persons over the year, significantly more than the previous year (33,153 in 2015). The ABS advises however that these figures are affected by processing delays which lowered the number of recorded births in 2015.
The “intercensal difference” accounted for over 11,000 persons of the state’s population increase in the past year.