Golden Age: Demographer Mark McCrindle on the Gold Coast’s massive population growth
THE Gold Coast is booming, writes social researcher Mark McCrindle, who reveals the city’s population is set to surpass that of Adelaide.
Opinion
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HOT off the presses, the latest quarter data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the growth of the Gold Coast has been the third largest of any city in Australia over the past 12 months.
It’s at 2.53 per cent while Australia itself only grew 1.6 per cent nationally over the same time.
Melbourne grew 2.63 per cent and Geelong topped it at 2.71 per cent.
In the past 12 months the Gold Coast added more than 16,000 people and as of this month the greater Gold Coast region’s population is 680,103 people.
If the growth rate continues at the rate we have seen in the past year, we will hit the 1 million mark in 2034
Just to put it in perspective, you need to look at Brisbane 40 years ago because it shows the scale of growth and the acceleration.
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Queensland only had a population of 2.2 million people 40 years ago and in that time Brisbane has grown 140 per cent, while the state’s population just hit 5 million people — a growth of 127 per cent.
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The big kicker is the Gold Coast. Back then we had a population of just 130,000 and therefore have seen a growth of 423 per cent.
The speed of growth is more than three times that of Brisbane, giving an idea of the sheer scale.
The Gold Coast is the sixth largest city in Australia, behind Adelaide in No. 5 position.
The question now is, will we overtake Adelaide? The answer is yes we will.
Adelaide is one of the slowest growing cities and its population only increased 0.73 per cent in the past year, less than a third of the same growth on the Gold Coast.
If the current growth rates continue, by 2058 the Gold Coast will overtake it to become Australia’s fifth largest city and that is based on rational population growth rates.
There is no reason to assume Adelaide will ramp up or the Gold Coast will slow down.
This then raises the question of when the Gold Coast will hit the 2 million mark. Based on current rates, this will occur in 2062 — 44 years from now.
It is good to see there is new infrastructure going in and there is cityscape that shows the Coast is used to development.
It has a CBD and there is infrastructure like the light rail. Based on this growth, these are things it will need for the future.
This means a strong approach must be taken to development as well as the infrastructure keeping pace to match it.
The entirety of southeast Queensland must be factored as a whole, with lots of growth in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.
If you add them all up, we are becoming a metropolis of more than 3 million people.
It is because of this growth that we need to get the planning right.
Mark McCrindle is a social researcher
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