The Australian Bureau of Statistics has reported record population growth in the nation’s capital cities.
The number of people living in capital cities grew by more than 500,000 in the year ending June 2023, the largest annual growth recorded by the ABS.
Melbourne, up 167,500, topped the 2022-23 growth ladder ahead of Sydney, which saw an increase of 146,700.
Perth and Brisbane each also added over 80,000 more people. Along with Adelaide (28,100), these five cities had their largest annual population growth since the start of the series in 1971.
However Perth had the highest growth rate (3.6 per cent), followed by Melbourne (3.3 per cent) and Brisbane (3.1 per cent).
The growth rate for the capitals combined was 3.0 per cent, more than double the growth rate for regional Australia, which was 1.4 per cent.
ABS head of demography Beidar Cho said the statistics reflect migration trends.
“Australia’s capital cities grew by a record 517,200 people last financial year, with this growth largely driven by net overseas migration,” Ms Cho said.
The largest growth areas were mostly in outer-suburban parts of the capital cities, where population growth was driven by net internal migration gains.
Over 2022-23 Rockbank – Mount Cottrell in Melbourne’s west grew by 4,300 people. Marsden Park – Shanes Park in Blacktown (3,900 people) and Boronia Heights – Park Ridge in Logan (2,000) grew the most in Sydney and Brisbane respectively.
Outside the capitals, the largest growth areas over 2022-23 were Caloundra West – Baringa and Landsborough (both up 1,700) in Queensland, and Barwon Heads – Armstrong Creek and Delacombe (both 1,100) in Victoria.
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This level of growth continues to be unsustainable. Every day I see the impacts of it with increased homelessness, double-digit house prices rises (it’s demand being quite deliberately stoked and subsequent supply problems), increased wait times for everything, and land clearing. Most of us who work in the city have experienced the poorer air quality as well. There are no net gains from this feckless surge. We need population policy as if people mattered, and we all need to have a voice now, because our lives have been fundamentally changed.