Melbourne’s population surpasses the whole of Queensland as experts warn of threat to liveability
There was a time not long ago when Melbourne was losing more people to Queensland than arrived from the sunshine state. But the tide has turned with the southern capital recently achieving a milestone.
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Melbourne’s population is now bigger than all of Queensland’s, raising concerns that the rapid growth is unsustainable for a city already facing major congestion and liveability issues.
Experts believe that Melbourne hit the milestone last September, while adding 105 more people a day than the sunshine state.
And on current trends, Melbourne will overtake Sydney as the nation’s biggest metropolis in 2026.
Demographer Mark McCrindle, from McCrindle Research, predicted that Melbourne would have about 5.21 million people by June 30 this year, compared to Queensland’s 5.18 million.
“For a city to have a larger population than the whole state of Queensland is remarkable, particularly a city like Melbourne that was a bit behind in its growth patterns of Sydney,” he said.
“It’s not only become the fastest growing capital city in the nation by overtaking Queensland, but it’s set to overtake Sydney as well in this decade.”
“Never before have we had cities adding 125,000 people in a year, which is what Melbourne is now doing – the numbers are quite phenomenal.”
Based on migration and natural increase trends, Mr McCrindle estimated that Melbourne’s population surpassed Queensland’s on September 25, 2019.
Structural landscaping foreman Dylan Barker moved his family to Melbourne from Brisbane 18 months ago in search of better job options.
“The financial instability of the seasonal work in construction in Queensland makes it quite difficult, and the pay rates are much higher in Melbourne, so that was the main reason,” he said.
“And the lifestyle is really good for us being a sporting family, that’s one of the biggest pros.”