Net overseas migration levels show sharp decline in Australia
by Harleen Kaur - October 4, 2010
Australia, 4th October: There has been a noticeable decline in the level of migration to Australia, the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal.
The Australia net migration plunged by around 37 percent as compared to a year ago. The net migration of Australia was 98,100 in the first three months in 2009; however, this has come down to 61,800 during the same time this year.
The figure of net migration is arrived at by deducting the number of Australian moving out of the nation from the number of immigrants in Australia.
The rate of population has been 2.2 percent in the year 2009 but it has now reached to 1.8 percent for the period of first three months of the year 2010 with around 22,272,000 people living in Australia by the end of March, the latest ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) figures reveal.
The number of people migrating to Australia in the year till March was 241,400 as compared to 320,300 in the last year.
And the number of babies born in Australia in the year till March was 303,500, which was 3.1 percent higher than the previous year. As the rates of deaths fell down, so, this resulted in an increase of 7 percent in the rate of natural population (i.e. births minus deaths).
Meanwhile, the rate of annual population growth in the country has been above average calling concerns for strained infrastructure.
Savanth Sebastian, a CommSec economist, said that higher rates of population growth in Australia mean higher demand for houses, schools, roads, hospitals etc.
Another thing worth consideration is that the rate of population growth in Australia has been uneven in different states of the nation.
While the population growth in resource rich states like WA (Western Australia) and Queensland has been around 2.3 percent and 2.2 percent respectively, the state of Victoria, NSW (New South Wales), ACT and South Australia showed a population growth rate of 2 percent, 1.6 percent, 1.8 percent and 1.3 percent respectively. NSW is the most populous state in Australia with a total population of around 7,221,000.
Meanwhile, Treasury has defended the estimate of Australia’s population of 36 million while clarifying for a huge fall in levels of net migration. The population of Australia will still be 29 million even if migration is cut to 60,000 persons annually.
»
- 1271 reads
