Western Australia has been revealed as the state to which people are flocking as post-pandemic overseas migration boosts Australia’s population to more than 27 million.
The national population has officially hit 27.1 million, a 2.3 per cent increase in the year to March, according to new data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
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That’s an increase of about 615,300 people over the previous year.
“Net overseas migration drove 83 per cent of this population growth, while births and deaths, known as natural increase, made up the other 17 per cent,” ABS head of demography Beidar Cho said.
NSW remained the most populated state at 8.5 million people, followed by Victoria at just under 7 million and Queensland at 5.5 million.
Population figures hit 1.9 million in South Australia, 567,000 in Tasmania, 473,000 in the ACT and 254,000 in the Northern Territory.
While all states and territories recorded a jump in residents, the west coast came out on top with the fastest growing population at 3.1 per cent.
WA’s population increased by 89,000 to just under three million, 73 per cent of which was driven by overseas migration while 11 per cent was people moving interstate.
Victoria had the second-fastest growing population, with an increase of 2.7, followed by Queensland at 2.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, Tasmania reported the lowest growth, with a population increase of just 0.4 per cent.
The island state lost 2800 people to interstate migration and welcomed 4700 new residents from overseas.
The state migration data reflects population trends in Australia’s capital cities, with the most recent ABS data showing Perth had the highest growth rate of 3.6 per cent in the year ending June 2023.
This was followed closely by Melbourne at 3.3 per cent and 3.1 per cent for Brisbane.
The largest growth areas were mostly in outer-suburban parts of the capital cities, where population growth was driven by net internal migration gains, the ABS said.
Marsden Park-Shanes Park was Sydney’s largest growing area, Rockbank-Mount Cottrell in Melbourne and Boronia Heights-Park Ridge in Brisbane.
In Perth, the Alkimos-Eglinton area recorded the most new residents, as did Munno Para West-Angle Vale in Adelaide, Rokeby in Hobart, Taylor in Canberra and Palmerston South in Darwin.
The next population milestone of 28 million is projected for 2027, according to ABS modelling.
Australia’s population is expected to reach 30 million people by 2033.