Tasmanian population growth slowing, new ABS figures reveal

Tasmania’s population growth appears to be coming to the end of a long boom, new figures show.

Big crowd of people, population generic. People gathered together in one place. Top view from drone. Picture: iStock

Tasmania’s population grew by just 112 people in the December quarter — one of the slowest three month periods of growth in nearly a decade, new Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates show.

The state had an estimated resident population of 571,596 at the end of the December, the ABS said.

That represented an increase of 1383 for the year, down from the growth of 3880 people the year before and 5906 the year before that.

Most of the net gain was from overseas migration to the state.

The state’s population growth rate of 0.5 per cent is the lowest in the country and one quarter the national average.

Labor seized on the figures, saying it was a sign that locals were “leaving Tasmania for the mainland in record numbers.

“This was the worst quarterly result since 1999 and shows Tasmanians are voting with their feet about the direction of Tasmania under Jeremy Rockliff and his minority Liberal government,” shadow treasurer Shane Broad said.

“Over the past six quarters, 1,345 more people have moved interstate than have arrived, and even overseas migration could not prevent Tasmania having the weakest population growth in the nation at just 0.5 per cent – well behind national growth of 1.9 per cent.

“More and more indicators are pointing to the fact that Jeremy Rockliff and his minority Liberal government’s wrong priorities are jeopardising Tasmania’s economic future.

“Sadly, it appears plenty of Tasmanians agree and are making the tough decision to leave our state for the mainland.

Treasurer Michael Ferguson said the data showed there was 57,800 more than when the government was elected in March 2014.

“This is not the first time that Dr Broad has gone out of his way to talk down the success of our State,” Mr Ferguson said.

“The Tasmanian Liberal Government set an ambitious target of growing Tasmania’s population to 650,000 people by 2050. We achieved our first milestone of 530,000 Tasmanians by 2020 early, in 2017.

“We have continued to grow strongly, and hit our 2030 target of 570,000 in the March quarter last year — 56,000 more people in work, 57,000 more people in the State. That’s the facts, that’s our record.”

Nationally, a whopping 121,071 Australians moved interstate in 2021, and 90,000 came from overseas.

Victoria, the Northern Territory and the ACT also recorded falls in net interstate migration, with Victoria seeing a drop of nearly 10,000

Only three states saw a net increase in interstate migration over the same time period, with South Australia recording an extra 670 people, Western Australia gaining 10,593 and Queensland recording an increase of 34,545.

While Australians were leaving NSW, the state saw a massive influx of overseas migrants, with a net increase of 134,602.

Victoria saw a net increase of 120,460 overseas migrants, while Queensland recorded just over 58,000.