3101.0 - Australian Demographic Statistics, Sep 2000  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 25/01/2001   
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Special Article - Australia's Regional Population Growth (Sep, 2000)


This article was published in Australian Demographic Statistics, September Quarter 2000 (ABS Catalogue number 3101.0).


POPULATION CHANGE

With the exception of Tasmania all States and Territories recorded gains in population in 1999-2000. This gain was not experienced by all regions in Australia; 350 Local Government Areas (LGAs) gained or had a constant population, while 274 LGAs experienced population loss.

At a regional level, differences in population change occur as a result of the interplay of the components of population growth: natural increase (the excess of births over deaths), net overseas and net internal migration. While there are variations for regions in all these components, it is internal migration that mainly determines the level of population growth in many regions of Australia.

Over recent years growth has occurred in several different types of regions throughout Australia, and these trends largely continued in 1999-2000. Examples of growth regions include outer suburban areas of capital cities, the inner cities, coastal regions, and regional centres. Some regions may fall into more than one kind of category as the distinction between the categories is not always clear.


CAPITAL CITY GROWTH

Growth in the capital cities accounted for most (73%) of Australia's population growth in the year to June 2000. Taken together capital city SDs grew by 1.3% (160,200) over the year to June 2000, while the balance of the States and Territories grew by 0.9%. Sydney and Melbourne experienced the largest population increases of Australia's capital cities in the year to June 2000, increasing by 53,600 and 52,100 people respectively, while Darwin and Brisbane recorded the fastest population increases (2.2% and 1.7% respectively). At June 2000 capital city SDs were home to 64% of the Australian population.

Inner city growth

Inner areas of Australia's capital cities continued to experience considerable population growth in 1999-2000. The LGAs of Sydney (up 9.6%), Melbourne (up 9.6%), and Perth (up 6.7%), continued to experience rapid population growth, while the SLAs of Fortitude Valley - Inner in Brisbane and Canberra City in the ACT increased by 740 people (102%) and 180 (72%) respectively in 1999-2000. The SLAs of City - Inner (9.6%), Coconut Grove (8%) and Stuart Park (6.8%) in Darwin also experienced relatively fast growth in 1999-2000.


GROWTH ALONG THE COAST

Many regions located along the coastline continued to record population gains during 1999-2000. Examples include Tweed (A), Lake Macquarie (C), Hastings (A), Shoalhaven (C) and Port Stephens (A) in New South Wales, and Surf Coast (S), Bass Coast (S) and Mornington Peninsula (S) in Victoria. Gold Coast (C) LGA in Queensland experienced the second largest population increase of all LGAs in Australia, and growth continued in the Queensland coastal areas of Maroochy (S), Pine Rivers (S) and Hervey Bay (C). Victor Harbour (DC) in South Australia continued to record population growth in 1999-2000, while coastal areas of Western Australia, such as Broome (S) and Busselton (S) were among the fastest growing LGAs in Australia.


GROWTH IN REGIONAL CENTRES

Population growth continued in a number of regional centres in the year to June 2000, such as Maitland (C), Griffith (C) and Dubbo (C) in New South Wales, Ballarat (C), Greater Shepparton (C) and Wodonga (RC) in Victoria, the cities of Townsville (C) and Toowoomba (C) in Queensland, Mount Gambier (C) in South Australia and Albany (C) in Western Australia.


SMALL AREA GROWTH AND DECLINE

Of the ten largest growth LGAs in Australia in 1999-2000, four were in the capital city of Melbourne, three were in Queensland and three were in Sydney. Queensland experienced the two largest LGA population increases to June 2000, with Brisbane (C) increasing by 14,700 people and Gold Coast (C) increasing by 13,300.

Among the ten largest declining LGAs in 1999-2000, eight were in the balances of the States and Territories. The balance of Victoria experienced the two largest LGA declines, with Latrobe (C) declining by 800 people and Wellington (S) down by 600 people.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS WITH LARGEST POPULATIONS

ERP AT 30 JUNE
CHANGE


1995
1999
2000p
1995-2000
1999-2000
National
rank
LGAPart of State
no.
no.
no.
%(a)
no.
%

LARGEST INCREASES IN 1999-2000
1Brisbane (C)Brisbane
808,476
867,573
882,259
1.8
14,686
1.7
2Gold Coast (C)Qld Balance
343,026
392,140
405,392
3.4
13,252
3.4
3Casey (C)Melbourne
144,110
167,162
174,911
4.0
7,749
4.6
4Liverpool (C)Sydney
118,129
142,947
149,257
4.8
6,310
4.4
5 Blacktown (C)Sydney
235,205
254,222
260,332
2.1
6,110
2.4
6Melbourne (C)Melbourne
37,830
47,462
52,023
6.6
4,561
9.6
7 Melton (S)Melbourne
39,635
46,021
50,454
4.9
4,433
9.6
8 Bankstown (C)Sydney
162,284
168,200
172,213
1.2
4,013
2.4
9 Hume (C)Melbourne
118,492
129,463
133,275
2.4
3,812
2.9
10 Redland (S)Brisbane
99,427
111,411
115,011
3.0
3,600
3.2

LARGEST DECLINES IN 1999-2000
1 Latrobe (C)Vic. Balance
72,009
69,994
69,192
-0.8
-802
-1.1
2 Wellington (S)Vic. Balance
41,929
41,338
40,766
-0.6
-572
-1.4
3 Broken Hill (C)NSW Balance
22,443
20,934
20,429
-1.9
-505
-2.4
4 Wagga Wagga (C)NSW Balance
55,856
56,172
55,705
-0.1
-467
-0.8
5 Whyalla (C)SA Balance
24,744
23,640
23,217
-1.3
-423
-1.8
6 Canterbury (C)Sydney
136,826
139,444
139,028
0.3
-416
-0.3
7 Vincent (T)Perth
25,595
25,747
25,336
-0.2
-411
-1.6
8 Southern Grampians (S)Vic. Balance
17,712
16,915
16,554
-1.3
-361
-2.1
9 Glenelg (S)Vic. Balance
20,980
20,186
19,863
-1.1
-323
-1.6
10 Rockhampton (C)Qld Balance
59,711
59,475
59,153
-0.2
-322
-0.5

(a) Average annual growth rate.


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Further information about regional population growth and decline is available in Regional Population Growth, Australia and New Zealand, 1999-2000 (Cat. no. 3218.0) released on 20 February 2001.