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…
