Over the past year, restrictions have eased and Australia is adjusting to living with COVID-19. The 2022 Population Statement details how Australia’s population growth is projected to recover and how it is expected to change over the next decade, reflecting longstanding demographic trends like population...

This report brings together three separate research projects to examine the capacity of Australia’s smaller cities to assist in managing population growth, including international and national migration. It also provides advice on which policy instruments and programs are most likely to redirect population movements to...

This report examines the merits of the Victorian government's decision to invest in the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) project, as part of their overall 'Big Build' infrastructure policy.

What is a suburb? From the perspective of a city’s economy, the function of a suburb is a place that provides residence and sustenance for workers who export their labour. While this definition includes a spatial distinction between where workers rest and replenish themselves from...

One of the biggest impacts of the COVID-19 crisis so far has been a sudden reduction in Victoria's population. This paper explores the implications of the crisis in an historical perspective. It provides estimates of the impacts on different electorates and develops a cluster analysis...

This research investigates the lived experience of regional city residents (in five case studies) to understand how the benefits and disadvantages of regional city life are perceived and explore attitudes towards population growth.

This report summarises a multi-stage project undertaken by a team at the University of South Australia for the RAI’s Intergovernmental Shared Inquiry Program in 2021-22.

This paper presents a series of speculative growth scenarios in Melbourne that test how medium-density infill models can respond to short- and long-term housing needs.

The Regional Australia Institute (RAI) believes the creation of a National Regionalisation Framework will draw together common priorities for supporting a stronger regional Australia. This consultation paper kicks off the process for developing the framework. It sets out five themes which the RAI has identified...

This research examines key drivers of migration flows and settlement patterns across Australia, and identifies key barriers to and opportunities for greater population decentralisation.

The internal migration of Australians from metro to regional areas has received increasing attention since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This first instalment of the Future of Work Lab’s 'Regional Migration Survey' aims to better understand the migration patterns, motivations and experiences of internal...

The relationship between population and climate change is complex. This paper reviews the evidence, and includes unique insights by lead author Ian Lowe, who has been involved in climate policy and research in Australia from its very beginning in the 1980s.

Historically, Melbourne and Victoria’s regional centres have provided residents with access to parks and open space that has been the envy of the world. This report examines many factors relevant to the current and future provision of environmental infrastructure in Melbourne and in Victoria's growing...

This report investigates agglomeration economies and their ability to alter the economic productivity of cities, together with an examination of the key drivers of population growth and mobility in Australia.

There is a huge gulf between Australia’s elite and Australia’s electorate on immigration policies – a gulf which has hardened since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. This report sets out the data from TAPRI's July 2021 survey and then outlines the possible implications...

This research quantifies productivity-related agglomeration benefits arising from the concentration of employment in Australia. While agglomeration provides a policy rationale for densifying cities and concentrating employment, it also leads to higher house prices, which reduce entry and ongoing affordability, greater pollution and other wellbeing detriments...

This research tracks Australia’s population growth over the period 2006–16 to examine how actual growth differed from projected growth. It also examines key drivers of population mobility in Australia to inform future urban development policy responses to demands on infrastructure and housing.

This research investigates the potential for Australia’s regional areas to attract and sustain population and economic growth, examining whether particular international strategies and Australian models for supporting development have been effective.

Population growth hotspots can now be identified faster than ever in Australia, with the release of this index, developed by the Regional Australia Institute, in partnership with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

This research tests the usefulness of new datasets to inform the forward planning of social and community infrastructure in rapidly growing areas of Australian cities. It focusses on greenfield areas of Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth to demonstrate data sources and methods that can be replicated...

This report provides the most up-to-date estimates of New Zealand’s land cover and associated land use and changes.

This report argues that the COVID-19 pandemic affords an opportunity for Australia to rethink the immigration policy and planning framework. The federal government’s pre-pandemic reduction in the planning cap on permanent migration from 190,000 per annum to 160,000 should be set aside indefinitely as non-binding...

Media reports and political discourse on our ageing population often adopt a tone of panic. This discussion paper untangles the facts from the myths, so that Australians can look afresh at the population ageing issue – less from a perspective of panic than one of...

This report looks at the way that people have moved around the country between the last two national Census in 2011 and 2016, where they chose to move to or move from, and the communities in which they decided to stay. It sets out a...

This inquiry concerns the National Water Initiative (NWI) — a 2004 intergovernmental agreement between the Australian government and all State and Territory governments. It is the Productivity Commission’s second national water reform inquiry, with the first undertaken in 2017.