The latest official population statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that the nation’s population grew by a record 624,000 in the 2022-23 financial year, driven by record net overseas migration of 518,000.
Last week, the ABS released national accounts data for the December quarter, which included quarterly estimates of population growth derived by netting aggregate GDP from per capita GDP.
According to the ABS national accounts, Australia’s population grew by 0.8% during the September quarter of 2023 and by 0.5% during the December quarter.
Extrapolating these growth figures from the latest official population data, which is current to 30 June 2023, suggests that Australia’s population grew by 213,100 in the September quarter followed by 134,300 in the December quarter:
Australia’s annual population growth peaked at 690,600 in the September quarter of 2023, before retracing marginally to 681,200 in the December quarter:
The only consolation is that population growth in the December quarter of 2023 (134,300) was marginally below the December quarter of 2022 (143,700).
Therefore, immigration and population growth have moved past their peak.
The downside is that with dwelling construction rates collapsing to decade-low, while population growth remains turbo-charged, Australia’s rental crisis will inevitably worsen.
Housing demand via population growth will continue to run way ahead of housing supply.
