Australia's Population - March Quarter 2007 at State Level

This second post in the series on the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics release on Australia's population looks at the aggregate state and territory figures. See the first post for the link to the source data.

The figures are interesting because they show the continuing relative decline of NSW which has now dropped below 33 per cent of the national population. I will comment on this in more detail at the end of this series when I draw together some of the implications.

Given below are the estimated figures (rounded) by state and territory at the end of March 2007.

• Queensland increased its population by 92,100 (up 2.3 per cent) in the year ended 31 March to reach 4,162,000.
• Victoria increased its population by 74,400 (up 1.5 per cent) to reach 5,188,100.
• NSW came third, increasing its population by 67,900 (up 1 per cent) to reach 6,875,700.
• Western Australia increased its population by 44,500 (up 2.2 per cent) to reach 2,094,500.
• South Australia increased its population by 16,100 (up 1 per cent) to reach 1,581,400.
• The Australian Capital Territory increased its population by 4,800 (up 1.5 per cent) to reach 338,200.
• The Northern Territory increased its population by 4,100 (up 2 per cent) to reach 213,800.
• Tasmania increased its population by 3,100 (up 0.6 per cent) to reach 492,700.

This population growth came from different sources.

In Tasmania (76.9 per cent), the Northern Territory (66.4 per cent), the Australian Capital Territory (58.3 per cent) and Queensland (35.1 per cent), the largest contribution came from natural increases (births minus deaths).

The largest contribution from net overseas migration came from South Australia (78.5 per cent), New South Wales (71.8 per cent), Victoria (57.6 per cent) and Western Australia (53.2 per cent). In terms of numbers:

• New South Wales gained 48,800
• Victorian gained 42,900
• Western Australia gained 23,700.

I haven't checked past numbers, but NSW's position as a centre for net overseas migration appears in decline.

The last component in state and territory population growth is net internal migration, the movement of people between Australian jurisdictions. Here the numbers are equally interesting:

• New South Wales minus 26,000
• South Australia minus 3,500
• Victoria minus 1,800
• Tasmania minus 520
• Northern Territory minus 180
• ACT plus 1,300
• Western Australia plus 4,100
• Queensland plus 26,700

Looking at these numbers, NSW is clearly the loser, Queensland the gainer.

Introductory post. Next post.