Daily Mail Australia
Australia records its highest ever immigration rate – with the population tipped to reach 25 million in months
Australia’s population is set to reach the 25 million milestone within a matter of months.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates the nation adds a new person every one minute and 26 seconds, making Australia the world’s fastest growing developed nation.
With Australia’s population standing at 24,772,437 people as of Tuesday night, the 25 million milestone is set to be reached in 2018.
Australia’s net immigration soared by a record 27 per cent in the year to June 30, 2017, compared with the previous year, as 245,400 new foreigners arrived.
Sydney and Melbourne are choking with new residents, with the ABS’s director of demography Beidar Cho pointing out overseas migration grew by 31 per cent in New South Wales and 23 per cent in Victoria.
Both states recorded their highest ever net immigration pace surpassing a growth level last experienced in 2008, the ABS said.
In the year to the end of June, NSW added 98,600 new migrants while Victoria absorbed 86,900 new overseas residents.
Growth was slower in the other states, with Queensland’s net migration rate up by 31,100 while Western Australia took in 13,100 new migrants.
Australia has the fastest population growth pace of any developed nation in the Organisation for for Economic Co-operation and Development with an annual growth pace of 1.6 per cent.
That is more than double the annual population growth pace of the United States (0.7 per cent) and the U.K. (0.6 per cent), and above the expansion rate of The Philippines and Singapore (1.5 per cent).
Only Papua New Guinea, a poor nation to Australia’s north, posted a faster population growth pace, expanding by 2.1 per cent.
Australians are also retiring later, with the ABS’s chief economist Bruce Hockman revealing on Tuesday the planned retirement age for those aged over 45 had stretched out to 65, up from 63 in 2007.
‘This is consistent with the continuing trend of people staying in the workforce for longer,’ he said.
‘A decade ago, around 9 per cent of people aged 65 and over were employed. This has increased to around 13 per cent in 2016-17.’
In 1998, the ABS forecast Australia’s population wouldn’t reach between 23.5 and 26.4 million until 2051.
Furthermore, the old country to city drift continues as well, further over filling Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane/Gold coast.
Looks like Malcolm’s lumbering toward the middle of a mess!
That’s not the only one he can’t fix: remember the power prices? Not yet fixed, even long after the carbon pricing was dropped, and his meeting with power company chiefs a few months ago. I’ll give him a white flag if he needs one. And let’s not talk about the recent petrol price spikes over xmas, good old days of xmas price hikes are back.
Who’s running the show? Let me guess: the rent seekers! Big power, big oil, etc. Hardly Malcolm in the middle.