Suck it again, Sydney! All roads are officially leading south. We already know that Victoria has the largest net gain of interstate migrators, but now there’s even more new data emerging that shows that Melbourne had the largest increase in population of any major city in the country last year.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics is slowly publishing data on the make-up of the country’s population, and it’s all seemingly revolving around the idea that people are viewing Melbourne more and more as the metropolitan epicentre of the country. Last year the city grew by 95,000 people, easily the largest increase of any capital, to a total population of 4.35 million people.
But the data doesn’t simply stop there. If current trends continue with regards to migration and fertility rates, Melbourne will overtake Sydney as the country’s most populous city by 2053, with a projected population of 8 million people.
The areas of the city that have seen the greatest leaps in population include South Morang, Melbourne city, and Point Cook, with Abbotsford, Docklands and Southbank also seeing significant spikes in numbers.
It’s not all sunshine and flowers and celebrations, however. With increasing amounts of people settling in one area, the strain on infrastructure to keep up becomes greater. With the highly controversial East/West link’s first stage not expected to be completed until 2019, and with the city’s public transport network in desperate need of expansion and improvement, the extra population could become problematic in the coming years.
Regional Victoria has also seen gains in population, with Geelong, Ballarat, and Bendigo all increasing in significant numbers. Victoria’s population as a whole now stands at 5.74 million people. The state’s growth rate at 1.9 per cent is above the national average of 1.8, but below runaway leader Western Australia’s 3.3 per cent, and the Northern Territory’s 2.1.
But still, HELL YEAH MELBOURNE! Hell yeah, football! Hell yeah, laneways! Hell yeah, giant Ferris Wheels that still don’t work properly! Hell yeah, trams and Fitzroy and Franco Cozzo and ugly Federation Square buildings and sensible grid-style city planning!
Melbourne!
Photo: Vince Caligiuri via Getty Images.
via Herald Sun.
