Thursday, 14 September 2023

Population up by a record +182,000 in Q1

Population balloons

Australia's estimated resident population increased by a record +181,600 or +0.7 per cent in the March quarter.

The annual growth increased to +563,200 or +2.2 per cent, and it's now certain that we'll see record high annual figures recorded over the next six months. 


Source: ABS

Net migration accounted for +152,000 of the quarterly increase, with around +30,000 accounted for my natural population increase (births minus deaths).


Source: ABS

Over the year population growth of +563,000 is a record high, with this figure set to soar to around +650,000 or more as the year progresses. 


Over the year to March there has already been thumping population growth in New South Wales (+156,300), Victoria (+161,700), and Queensland (+124,000).

The fastest rate of population growth was recorded in Western Australia +2.8 per cent). 


Source: ABS

The economy would need to create +35,000 jobs per month to absorb this rate of population growth, which won't be possible, and clearly housing supply won't be able to keep up either, underpinning the property market.

Similar trends are playing out in New Zealand and Canada, it appears. 

The population today sits at around 26,775,000, which is about where we'd have got to with no pandemic.


Source: ABS

An extraordinary rebound.