The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) yesterday released its regional population statistics for the 2019-20 financial year, which revealed that Australia’s capital cities grew in population by 245,300 (1.4%), driven by net overseas migration of 162,800.
The next table shows the population break-down across the capitals, with Melbourne (+80,088) leading the nation’s population growth in numbers terms and Brisbane (+1.9%) in growth rate terms:
Melbourne led the nation’s population growth for the 14th consecutive year.
As shown in the next chart, Melbourne has led the nation’s population growth for 14 consecutive years, although growth fell sharply owing to the closure of Australia’s international border in March 2020. In fact, Brisbane was the only capital to experience strong population growth on the back of positive contributions from natural increase (16,966), internal migration (13,779) and net overseas migration (16,169).
Population growth fell sharply in Sydney and Melbourne after the international border closed. But Brisbane experienced strong growth.
You can see from the next chart that despite the closure of Australia’s international border in March 2020, Melbourne still received 56,083 net overseas migrants in 2019-20:
Net overseas migration into Melbourne remained strong in 2019-20.
Sydney also received 50,083 net overseas migrants in 2019-20:
Net overseas migration into Sydney was also strong in 2019-20.
The absurdity of the ‘Big Australia’ mass immigration policy is highlighted in the next chart, which shows that Melbourne added an insane 1.5 million people (+42%) in the 16 years to 2019-20, whereas Sydney added a ludicrous 1.2 million (+28%) people over the same period:
The population growth in Australia’s major capital cities over the past 16 years has been nothing short of insane.
One of the biggest positives to come from the COVID-19 pandemic is that it has slowed Australia’s break-neck population growth, thus relieving pressure on our major cities.
Policy makers should never allow immigration to return to the ridiculous levels experienced in the prior 15 years. The majority of Australians do not want a significantly larger population.
