AUSTRALIA'S population growth has fallen to its slowest rate since 2007, after a sharp decline in migration levels continued into the first quarter of this year.
According to the Bureau of Statistics, the nation was home to 22,272,000 people at the end of March, but the annual growth rate had slowed considerably to 1.8 per cent, from the 2.2 per cent record high of the previous year.
Although the election debate often centred on immigration, the figures, published yesterday, show that a key reason for the slowdown was a cooling in net migration, which was 37 per cent lower than a year earlier.
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Some 241,400 people migrated to Australia over the year to March, but this was a far cry from the record of 320,300 in the previous year.
On the other hand, a domestic baby-boom has been gathering pace, with a record 303,500 babies born in the year to March, 3.1 per cent more than last year.
With the number of deaths falling, this meant the rate of population natural increase - births minus deaths - was 7 per cent higher than a year earlier.
Overall, the annual growth in population remains well above its long-term average, prompting concerns about overstretched infrastructure.
An economist at CommSec, Savanth Sebastian, said such ''phenomenal'' growth was near the fastest in the developed world.
''More people in Australia means greater demands for houses, roads, schools, hospitals and a raft of retail goods, and as such is providing much-needed stimulus in trying times for the global economy,'' he said.
However, the growth has not been evenly spread around the country. The booming resources states, Western Australia and Queensland, led the charge with respective growth rates of 2.3 and 2.2 per cent. NSW was a relative laggard, expanding by 1.6 per cent, the third slowest after Tasmania and South Australia.
Source:http://www.smh.com.au/national/migration-levels-in-sharp-drop-20100929-15xff.html
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