Are you lucky enough not to have been affected by COVID recently? If so, you could be forgiven for thinking the pandemic is over. The prevalence of facemasks in public has dropped right off and ‘checking in’ is a thing of the past. And now comes further evidence from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) – a massive jump in our country’s population.
The latest population missive to come out of the ABS reveals Australia’s population jumped by 1.9 per cent in 2022. In raw numbers that’s an increase of 496,800, taking Australia’s total population to 26,268,400. This puts it above the 26 million milestone for the first time.
By percentage, Australia has not had a jump in population as big as this since 2008, 15 years ago.
What’s driving our population up?
The biggest factor behind the jump also provides another reason many believe the fallacy that the pandemic has ended – overseas migration. There were 619,600 overseas migration arrivals and 232,600 departures, resulting in Australia’s population growing by 387,000 people from overseas migration.
Beidar Cho, ABS head of demography, revealed that the return of international students was central to that growth. “Recovery of international student arrivals is driving net overseas migration to historic highs, while departures are lagging behind levels typically seen over the past decade,” Ms Cho said.
“This pattern is expected to continue as international students return following the reopening of international borders,” she added. “However there are fewer students ready to depart because very few arrived during the pandemic.”
The remainder is comprised of what’s known as a ‘natural increase’, which is total Australian births less total Australian deaths. Last year’s natural increase was 109,800 people, a decrease of 23.4 per cent on 2021. There were 300,700 births and 190,900 deaths registered during this time. Deaths increased by 11.1 per cent, with births decreasing 4.6 per cent.
And while the migration figures might fool you into believing the pandemic is over, the ‘natural’ figures should do the opposite. The ABS says COVID mortality is the main contributor to the spike in deaths and a lower natural increase.
What does this mean for Australia?
There are a number of ways of looking at how the jump in population will affect Australians. One of the obvious concerns for many will be the effect on housing. The net increase through migration means new accommodation has to have been found for 387,000 migrants.
With interest rates and inflation already putting pressure on rental prices, does this push them up further? Possibly, says property strategist Alastair Lias.
Writing for online real estate website Property Update, Mr Lias said the increase coincides with “a severe undersupply of properties”.
“As these migrants don’t bring a home with them when they come to Australia, the tight rental markets and skyrocketing rents are likely to continue for some time,” he said.
On the other hand, the fact that migrants need to set up a new household is driving demand. This in turn fuels Australia’s economy.
“Many of the new residents are coming with fat cheque books,” Mr Lias said. And most of these, he believed, would rent before buying. “They’re not likely to feel the pain of high interest rates that Aussie mortage holders are feeling.”
The full ABS report, released on 15 June, can be found on the ABS website.
Were you aware of the jump in Australia’s population last year? How do you feel about it? Why not share your thoughts in the comments section below?
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IMO most Australian’s don’t want this high immigration when our infrastructure and housing is overloaded now. What most of us experience from this is traffic jams, unaffordable housing, longer waiting lists for medical treatment etc. In other words nothing beneficial.
But big business and greedy real estate developers/investors love it and get their paid stooges in both major parties to keep immigration absurdly high.
I agree with both writers above. I see agricultural land now closely packed with houses. We won’t be able to eat bricks. The environmental damage happening is frightening, and it is due to overpopulation, not CO2 as we are politically led to believe.
I think immigration should be reduced until Australia gets back on its feet. Money spent on immigration should be spent on helping the people in Australia as current problems are not going away anytime soon.
On the same day I received this I also got an email about trying to stop koala habitat from being bulldozed for more housing development. We cannot have this continued population growth without destruction of our environmental heritage.