"Australia's population hits 24 million faster than expected". Immigration from third world countries has rescued Australian population from stagnation as closet poms give procreation a miss and third world immigrants enthusiastically rise to the occasion.
Australia's population is about to hit 24 million.
Private sector demographer Mark McCrindle said Australia's faster than anticipated population growth helps explain public frustration about traffic gridlock and crowded trains.
"Its no real surprise that infrastructure is playing catch-up because the population has overshot the forecasts on which the planning was based," he said.
When births, deaths and net overseas migration are taken into account the population increases by one person every one minute and 31 seconds. Beidar Cho, the Director of Demography at the Bureau of Statistics, said Australia's population is projected to reach 25 million in 2018 "and will keep increasing by a million persons every 2 to 3 years".
What's behind the rapid increase?
Prior to the turn of the century, the ABS thought it would take until 2033 to reach a population of 24 million.
In late 1999 – when the population reached 19 million - the Bureau of Statistics projected the national population would reach 24 million in 2033. Trends at the time suggested the each new million people would be added in 7 to 9 years but instead Australia has been adding an extra million every 3-4 years.
One factor is a mini baby boom last decade. Australia's fertility rate rose from 1.7 babies per woman in 2001 to 2 babies per woman between 2007 and 2010. That's well below the peak fertility rate of 3.5 babies per woman reached in 1960 and 1961.
Our improving longevity has also made a difference. Since the turn of the century life expectancy has risen from 76.6 years to 80.3 years for men and from 82 years to 84.4 years for women.
Net overseas migration has also outstripped the forecasts made in the late 20th century although numbers have slowed somewhat in the past few years.
From country to city
Australia's population has increased six-fold since Federation in 1901. At that time only 37 per cent of Australian's 3.8 million people lived in a capital city but now the proportion is 67 per cent. The population of Australia's biggest city, Sydney, is set to top 5 million later this year having doubled in half a century. But Melbourne (population 4.5 million) is catching up.
Doubled in fewer than 50 years
Prime Minister John Gorton presents the singing group The Seekers with plaques to commemorate their being named Australians of the Year in 1968.
Prime Minister John Gorton presents the singing group The Seekers with plaques to commemorate their being named Australians of the Year in 1968. Photo: Clive Mackinnon
Mr McCrindle says that Australia's population reached 12 million in 1968 and so it has taken 48 years to double. In 1970, the global population was exactly half what it currently is at 7.3 billion, and so the world has taken only slightly less time, 46 years, to double.
"More than one-third of Australians have seen both Australia, and the world, double in population size in their lifetime," says Mr McCrindle, the principal of social research firm, McCrindle.
Despite recent population growth, Australia accounts for only 0.32 per cent of the world's population.
Future projections
If Australia's population continues to grow at 1.5 per cent per year – comparable to the rate in recent years - the bureau's population clock will reach 40 million by mid-century.
Melbourne is projected to become Australia's most populated city by the mid-2050s. Australia's population is projected to be around 53 million by 2100.
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