Inner Melbourne population booming thanks to student influx

Melbourne’s population is booming particularly in the CBD and inner suburbs such as Carlton. Here’s why one group has flocked to our city in droves.

Inner Melbourne’s population is booming, fuelled by an influx of foreign students, new figures show.

The City of Melbourne, which includes the CBD and some nearby suburbs like Carlton, had the biggest migrant inflow of any Victorian municipality in 2017-18, Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveal.

It had a net overseas migration intake of 8873, which comprises the number of people arriving from abroad minus the number leaving for overseas.

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Last year, overseas students accounted for a massive 44 per cent of NOM for the whole of Australia.

The Australian Population and Research Institute’s Dr Bob Birrell said the evidence was very strong that many of the arrivals in the inner city were foreign students.

“We know from recent reports that overseas students occupy a high share of high-rise apartment blocks in Melbourne,” he said.

“These are the tiny apartments which attract mainly singles, certainly not families.”

“That would explain what would seem obvious to most observers of the inner city that overseas students are now a major presence in that location.”

Among other high migration areas are the City of Monash City, which includes Clayton, Glen Waverley and Oakleigh.

Australia’s population has grown to 25.1 million.

In 2017-18, it had 6329 NOM arrivals, but also lost a net 3718 residents who moved to other locations in Australia during the year.

In 2016, Monash had a China-born population of 12.5 per cent and India-born of 5.3 per cent.

The western suburbs’ City of Wyndham — one of the nation’s top growth hot spots — recorded 4717 NOM arrivals.

But the area, which includes Point Cook and Werribee, also gained an extra 5472 people moving in from other municipalities.

The biggest migrant group is from India, with 10.3 per cent of the area’s population born there, said the 2016 census.

Victoria’s population continued to have the fastest growth at 2.2 per cent.

Whitehorse City, which has Box Hill and Blackburn, gained 4317 NOM arrivals and lost 2076 people to other areas, according to the ABS data.

Whitehorse had a China-born population of 11.5 per cent and an India-born one of three per cent in 2016.

Greater Dandenong City had 3940 NOM arrivals, but a net loss of 2858 people moving out.

It’s main migrant groups are the Vietnam-born (8.7 per cent) and India-born (8.2 per cent).

The City of Casey, on the city’s booming southeast fringe, had 3865 NOM arrivals, plus a net inflow of 5953 people from other Australian places.

In 2016, Casey’s population was 8.5 per cent India-born and 5.3 per cent Sri Lanka-born.

Net overseas migration for Victoria last year was 85,053, down 1848 on the 2016-17 figure.

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