• Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics

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04 November 2011This report summarises key trends in population growth and decline in Australia’s regions, primarily between 2001 and 2009. The report’s main focus is on the spatial distribution of population growth. To complement understanding of population change, the important aspect of population mobility is also considered. It also discusses some of the main drivers of population change and suggests likely trends into the future.

While, this report focuses on recent trends in the spatial distribution of domestic residents, two other recent reports, by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and the Productivity Commission, analyse other aspects of Australia’s population growth. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship report Population flows: Immigration aspects 2008–09 edition (DIAC 2010) provides a discussion of permanent and temporary migrants entering Australia under skilled, family, humanitarian, students and working holiday programs. The Productivity Commission (2010) report, entitled Population and migration: understanding the numbers has been released ‘to improve the information base for public discussion’ by providing a description of the population components. The PC report also contains a brief discussion into the geography of population growth in Australia with a focus on states/territories and capital cities.