Australia’s population passes 27 million, 18 years early

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Australia's population has hit a major milestone, surpassing 27 million people according to the bureau of statistics. The milestone has come 18 years earlier than it was once forecast.

Transcript

00:00 So just in the past 12 months the population has grown by numbers that we've never seen

00:07 before.

00:08 It increased by 624,000 people.

00:12 The previous record was in 2009 where it increased by 442,000.

00:18 So about a 41% increase on that previous number.

00:22 The population hit 27 million at about 345 yesterday afternoon.

00:28 That number far exceeds the forecast from 2002 where they were predicting that the national

00:35 population would be 25 million people in the year 2042.

00:40 Migration made up the biggest numbers.

00:44 We did see 737,000 arrivals.

00:47 There were also 219,000 departures.

00:51 The number of births and deaths has remained relatively steady going on historical figures.

00:58 But Liz Allen, a demographer from the Australian National University, she's saying that we

01:03 are expecting to hit 28 million people within the next five years.

01:08 But she has said that that is going to come with some issues.

01:14 Some things to note though is that climate boiling, housing affordability, cost of living,

01:19 insecure jobs and so on are very much front of mind for young people.

01:25 And if we want them to achieve their life goals, we need to ensure certainty and we

01:30 need to stop the population panic.

01:32 Well, that sentiment has been echoed by Mark McGrindle from McGrindle Research who says

01:39 that it is a particularly difficult time when we are seeing infrastructural bottlenecks,

01:48 people struggling with education and health supply and also the housing supply and demand.

01:55 We all know the issues that the country has been facing over recent years.

01:59 So with the population growing in the years to come, that housing situation could definitely

02:08 be getting worse.

02:09 �

02:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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