balkanghost

Australian population and immigration growth slows.

Migrant cut slows population growth in Melbourne but crowded city swells further. MELBOURNE'S population hit four million as Victoria's growth continued to surge last year. But national population growth slowed marginally last year owing to lower immigration, according to a report yesterday from the Australian Bureau of Statistics....

....Public concern over rampant growth and its effect on liveability led the Federal Government to cut migration by more than 20,000 places last year. A major national survey on social attitudes recently found that more than two-thirds of Australians believe the population is big enough. The ABS data reveal that net overseas migration fell by 24,000 to 277,700 last year. There were 295,700 births in Australia, a drop of almost 5000 compared with the year before...

...Australia now has 22.2 million people, up by 432,000 since 2008. The growth rate slowed to 2 per cent last year after peaking at 2.2 per cent in 2008.


By early 2011 will have slowed even more.... then by mid 2011 the federal government will realise that immigration growth, i.e. numbers of permanent residents, (not temporary as included in population such as large but decreasing numbers of overseas students), needs to increase as baby boomers start retiring en masse this year and tax base decreases while demand for government services such as health, pensions etc. increases... but then again, racists, anti immigrationists, panicked politicians, media, demographers etc. would not be able to run scare campaigns in the media... so while scare campaigns were active in 2009 about supposed run away population growth, the population growth rates had been slowing significantly....


PS Real estate industry would not be happy with the news either as their justifcation for increasing house prices has been rapid population growth....

coolshadows

Australia will need population growth for many years to come, just has to be sustainable. They simply can't build the houses, roads, infrastructure etc... fast enough.

I spend up to an hour travelling 30km each way to work, simply because the road network is underfunded. I could use public transport, but it's completely laughable in South Australia.

Still, it's all going to change - there's a new salesman (or I should say saleswoman) in charge now!

pomtastic

You'd never guess an election was around the corner.

I reckon the Govt has changed the methodology in the calculation of the stats to make the figures look 'better'.

Immigration has become a big no no for the average Aussie voter, illegal or legal and my hunch is the stats have been massaged to suit to win voters.

On the other hand, a high Aus dollar has made it unattractive to study in Aus right now, so student numbers could be down. Also, too expensive for Poms to migrate these days, unless you have a wad of cash and if you did have a wad of cash then why leave UK? Plenty of good grammar schools and areas if you can afford it in UK.

ABCDiamond

It still has some way to go down, to slow back to the normal lower annual rates of increase.

The average for the last 28 years has been 1.39%
The average for the last 10 years has been 1.52%
The average for the last 5 years has been 1.81%

Percentage ERP Change Over Previous Year ; Australia ;

• 1.56 Dec-1982
• 1.27 Dec-1983
• 1.25 Dec-1984
• 1.42 Dec-1985
• 1.50 Dec-1986
• 1.59 Dec-1987
• 1.78 Dec-1988
• 1.50 Dec-1989
• 1.38 Dec-1990
• 1.27 Dec-1991
• 1.12 Dec-1992
• 1.02 Dec-1993
• 1.08 Dec-1994
• 1.36 Dec-1995
• 1.23 Dec-1996
• 1.02 Dec-1997
• 1.10 Dec-1998
• 1.19 Dec-1999
• 1.23 Dec-2000
• 1.36 Dec-2001
• 1.21 Dec-2002
• 1.22 Dec-2003
• 1.20 Dec-2004
• 1.44 Dec-2005
• 1.60 Dec-2006
• 1.87 Dec-2007
• 2.16 Dec-2008
• 1.99 Dec-2009

coolshadows

Add to the fact that they've stopped people coming here and training as hairdressers and cooks just to get PR.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Good... don't want all those bloody foreigners coming in.

Syedney

ha ha ha...You are definitely talking from your anus mate!

Not xenophobic are you?

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Perhaps if I had put a or a in my text you might have spotted the sarcasm better.

Syedney

You're right ...did think you're being sarcastic but wanted to be sure...Thanks!

Dorothy

Iam doesn't know anything but sarcasm.

balkanghost

This news has not been in the interest of various stakeholders and was hidden away in the middle of the Herald Sun....maybe preparing the ground for Gillard, to make things a bit easier.... but the "medium" in Oz have been running an anti immigration, population growth, refugee, overseas student etc. agenda....

Much of the hysteria about population growth generated by media and politicians (and spruiking by real estate industry) was based upon "population & growth" which includes temporary residents such as overseas students and 457's which were at an historical peak 2008/09, purposelyconfusing with immigration, but were already subsiding, due time lags of up to two years on data.....

The real effects will not be seen till early 2011 as international student commencements (not existing reenrolments) have already fallen off a cliff this year and getting worse..... and migration numbers of course cut.... let's wait for the knock on effects...,

Probably good for prospective immigrants and home buyers in future

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Thanks for that.


...but perhaps I'm just being sarcastic with my thanks.

ABCDiamond

Definitely will have to wait till 2011, as the international student commencements figures are still rising in 2010.

However, when just looking at commencements, these numbered 142,518 in the 9 months to March 2010, an increase of only 0.3% over the same period in the previous year. (but still an increase)

The ELICOS commencements have declined by 13.4%, but the larger numbers of Higher Education sector recorded a growth of 11.8% in commencements, giving that slight overall increase.

The two largest markets in Higher Education sector were China (34.2% enrolments, 38.5% commencements) and India (10.9% enrolments, 7.3% commencements).

Change from March 2009 to March 2010, for the two main countries:

• China up 16.60% : 102,729 up to 119,786
• India down 1.90% : 73,717 down to 72,314

China appears to have taken up the slight drop from the Indian commencements.

Dorothy

You're welcome. Personally I love sarcasm.

Syedney

No offence, but when I first started my job here in Aus I did notice how big the Chinese community is here and was suprised, in my naivety to see that...However, now it seems that Aus-China is a special relationship out here..

Without China, I think Au would sink in the economic mire!!!
That's why a lot Chinese are here..

Is that a fair statement?

I have even heard of ppl that the Chinese are boosting the housing market here and contributing to the shortagsd and price hike faced by the locals..:eek