Population growth at record levels

AUSTRALIA is in a high population growth phase and has been for much of this decade.

AUSTRALIA is in a high population growth phase and has been for much of this decade.

Assisted by higher birth rates and heightened net overseas migration, Australia added a record 406,000 residents last year. The previous record was 375,000 in the year to June 2007. During the 1990s, the nation's annual growth averaged 211,000. Births last year reached 297,000, up 49,000 on 2003, and net overseas migration was 253,000, up 143,000 on five years earlier.

The main difference between Australia's population growth between 2003 and last year was the net addition of 192,000 kids and migrants over and above prevailing rates of growth.

There is still some debate as to why births increased, but it is likely to be a combination of people feeling confident about the future during the boom, and the baby bonus.

The migration component jumped in response to our need for skills during the boom.

Growth at this pace plays out in more people being added to local communities, which require more housing, roads, shops, schools, factories and jobs.

The most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics data tracking the fine detail of population growth at local government area level relates to the year ending June 2008.

The largest municipality in population is the City of Brisbane, with 1.028 million residents at June last year. On the other hand, the Nullarbor Aboriginal Community of Maralinga Tjarutja is the least populated municipality in Australia, with 110 residents at June last year, followed by WA's Shire of Murchison with just 111 residents (including the town clerk). A single family moving to Murchison could lift the population by 5per cent.

When the ABS publishes regional population growth (in either March or April), the data relates to the previous financial year. So data released in April this year provides estimates of population growth over the 12 months to June last year. Mayors of small communities often get very excited about the addition of a modest number of people that creates high-percentage growth.

Technically, the fastest-growing municipality during 12 months to June last year was the City of Perth, which increased its population by 10.8per cent, but this growth amounted to fewer than 1500 new residents. On the other hand, most population growth was added to the City of Brisbane with 17,368 new residents over the past financial year.

However, these new residents produced a growth rate of just 1.7 per cent.

Most people in the property and planning industries understand the nuances of claims that a municipality is the fastest-growing or that it adds most people. An example of this is again the City of Brisbane.

It may have added the most new residents, but they are scattered across a wide metropolitan area. There are clusters of fast-growing areas in Brisbane's north (Bracken Ridge), east (Wakerley) and south (Calamvale). Clusters of growth excite property developers and concern planners. They localise demand for property and intensify demand for infrastructure. For this reason I much prefer to identify growth regions. These are contiguous municipalities that dominate part of a metropolitan area and that are connected by major transportation arteries.

Examples of fast-growing regions offering some level of critical mass include the Casey-Cardinia corridor on Melbourne's southeastern edge, which added 11,000 residents over the year to June last year. At that time, Sydney's Blacktown-Baulkham Hills added 9000 residents and Perth's Wanneroo-Joondalup added 10,000. However, topping all of these metropolitan regions is what can be described as Melbourne's new Western Front, the Melton and Wyndham local government areas, which added 15,000 new residents in the 12 months to June last year.

Bernard Salt is a KPMG partner

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