SA’s brain drain fleeing interstate predicted to accelerate in budget

South Australia’s brain drain is on the move – predicted to accelerate as more people flee the state to live elsewhere in Australia.

Michael McGuire

@mcguiremi

less than 2 min read

May 14, 2024 - 8:30PM

Budget figures have revealed the staggering loss of people leaving SA for interstate by 2027-28. Picture: Brenton Edwards

South Australia’s brain drain to other states will dramatically accelerate in the next four years, according to new figures contained in the federal budget.

The budget papers predict SA will lose a net 2000 people to the rest of Australia this financial year, followed by 2900 in 2024-25, 3500 in 2025-26, 3400 in 2026-27 and 3300 in 2027-28.

That is a net loss of 15,100 people to interstate by 2027-28,

It’s a significantly worse result than the net 400 people, the budget says left SA in the 2022-23 financial year.

Premier Peter Malinauskas has consistently talked up the reasons for interstate people to move to SA, pointing to job opportunities in areas such as defence and energy, plus trying to generate a feel-good PR factor through events such as the AFL Gather Round and LIV golf.

LIV golf boss Greg Norman with Premier Peter Malinauskas ... the Premier has been trying to generate a feel-good PR factor for SA through events such as the AFL Gather Round and LIV golf. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

High-profile Victorian media personality Steve Price wrote a glowing column recently spruiking reasons why he believed SA was a great place to live.

The budget papers also show SA is predicted to have the second slowest rate of population growth from all sources over the next four years, only beating out Tasmania.

According to the budget papers, SA’s population will be 1.93 million at June 30, 2028, 3 per cent higher than June 30, this year.

The growth markedly trails the growth recorded in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and WA. Only Tasmania, with a growth rate of 2.1 per cent over the next four years, performs worse than SA.

Victoria is expected to break through the 7 million person barrier next financial year and reach 7.48 million by 2027-28. NSW will grow its population by 5.6 per cent to 8.97 million by 2027-28, while Queensland will jump 5.7 per cent to 5.91 million and WA 5 per cent to 3.1 million.

Australia’s overall population is predicted to reach 28.7 million by 2027-28, an increase of 5.7 per cent in four years.