Population statement
There's been plenty of media reporting through the week on the 2022 population statement from the Aussie government (via the Centre for Population), so there's not too much to add here.
Firstly, labour shortages should no longer be such a pressing issue, with the number of temporary visa holders absolutely rocking back in late 2022.
Looking forward, the population statement effectively makes the case for a high immigration scenario to reduce the median age, and to tackle the dependency ratio.
The baseline migration scenario would see Australia's population increasing to 39.2 million by 2060.
However, the high migration scenario would see Australia's population almost doubling to close to 50 million by 2060, resulting in a much lower median age and dependency ratio in 2060.
Every Intergenerational Report makes this point: migrants bring skills, lower the median age (at least initially, before ageing themselves), increase the participation rate, pay taxes for a very long time, and reduce the dependency ratio.
Which I guess is why successive governments tend to lean consistently towards faster immigration policy settings.
Australia's capital cities lost population through the pandemic, with a dramatic loss of temporary visa holders out of the country, while many Aussies moved to the regions.
This is now reversing and the bulk of population growth is expected to be in the capital cities over the coming decades.
The capital cities have lower median ages, notes to the statement, and as such sees more births than regional Australia.
Melbourne's population is projected to grow by 1.1 million to 6.1 million over the next 10 years.
Greater Sydney is also expected to grow to just shy of 6.1 million, while Brisbane is projected to grow from 3.7 million to 4.1 million over the coming decade.
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New vehicle sales are floundering a bit, with only 87,920 sales in December.
