What will the impact of COVID-19 be on population growth and change in Australia? In May I wrote this blog which argued that the biggest impact would be on the volume of net overseas migration (NOM), but the scale of the impact would depend on how long travel restrictions and the border closure were enforced….
Net overseas migration (NOM) is the primary driver of population growth in Australia. In 2018-19, NOM contributed to 62% of total population growth. The headline numbers catch the attention of the media and the general public, but overseas migrants are a diverse group of people. What are their characteristics? The recent release of the annual…
There’s no doubting that the COVID-19 virus and its rapid spread around the world has greatly impacted our lives. To date, much of the public discourse around COVID-19 has focussed on economic and health issues. Of course there are good reasons for this, but what impacts will there be on population change? What trends will…
The number of building approvals is generally viewed as an indicator of the state of the economy, and hence is one of the more important data sets released by the ABS. Approvals are linked to construction activity, jobs and the flow-on effects to the rest of the economy. Recently I had a conversation with someone…
Wondering what happeing to Australia’s population? Well the Australian Demographic Statistics, a quarterly publication prepared by the ABS, was released just before Xmas and provides estimates of Australia’s population, and that of the states and territories, up to June 2019. Here are the highlights of this latest release… Australia’s population At June 2019, Australia’s population…
South Australia has one of the oldest populations in Australia, with a median age of 40 years in 2018. But age structures and settlement patterns differ across the State – some areas are younger, and some are older. This blog looks at the recent release of ERP data by age and sex, with a focus…
Population issues have become highly political in Australia, dominating headlines whenever new data is released. In 2019, the Australian Government responded to the growing policy pressures by establishing the Centre for Population. One of its aims is to produce more accurate population forecasts. As someone with a background in producing population forecasts, this claim intrigued me….
Most people are familiar with the idea of the Census as a population count, but a lot of additional data on dwellings and households are also collected. Similar to population variables, housing data is also available for small geographic areas. This enables users to see the spatial patterns and characteristics across our cities and regions….
The release of the historical population data by the ABS allows us to look at where we’ve come from to where we are today – with a demographic spin. Since 1926, the Australian population has grown considerably, both in size and maturity. Using 30 years to approximate a generation, this blog looks at three generations…
In the second half of 2018, the population of NSW surpassed the 8 million mark. This milestone has been somewhat overlooked in the current discourse around the challenges associated with rapid population growth in Australia. For the last decade, the population growth rate in NSW has been at or around the national average. But don’t…
