International border closures have had an impact on Australia’s population growth, but babies are booming, new research shows.
Restrictions in overseas migration resulted in Australia’s population growth slowing to a near stand-still in the year to March 2021, according to official data released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The figures show that Australia’s population grew by just over 0.1 per cent (35,700 people) to 25.7 million, in contrast to a growth of 1.5 per cent in the 2019 calendar year.
Population growth has fallen significantly, but remained positive in Queensland (up 0.85 per cent), WA (0.57 per cent), Northern Territory (0.48 per cent), ACT (0.39 per cent), Tasmania (0.39 per cent), South Australia (15 per cent), NSW (0.14 per cent). Growth in Victoria declined by 0.64 per cent.
Growth over the past 12 months was entirely due to natural increase (adding 131,000 people), while net overseas migration was negative (-95,300) over the period, the first time since 1946. This continues the recent shift from the long run trend of net overseas migration driving the majority of Australia’s population growth. There were 293,500 births and 162,500 deaths during this period.
Research released this week by IBISWorld also shows that hospitals across the country have encountered a significant increase in the number of births in 2021, the likes of which has not been seen for over 10 years. Births in Australia grew by 8.8 per cent in the March quarter of 2021, the largest quarter increase since 1985, defying a long-term decline in the fertility rate.