Population growth in Australia has slowed to 1.5%, the lowest growth rate since 2006, according to the latest figures to be published by the Bureau of Statistics.
Overall, growth is down from a peak of 2.2% in 2008 but it varies on a regional basis. For example, Western Australia recorded the fastest population growth with 2.1%, followed by the ACT with 2%. Tasmania and the Northern Territory recorded the slowest growth, well below the national average at just 0.8%.
The data shows that immigration accounts for just over half of the total population growth but that has also slowed. In 2010, it was 35% lower than in the previous year. The birth rate accounts for the remaining portion of population growth.
The preliminary estimated resident population (ERP) of Australia as of 31 December 2010 was 22,477,400, an increase of 325,500 people since 31 December 2009 and 69,700 since 30 September 2010.
The preliminary natural increase recorded for the year ended 31 December 2010 was 154,400 persons, some 1.8%, or 2,800 lower than the natural increase recorded for the year ended 31 December 2009.
The preliminary net overseas migration recorded for the year ended 31 December 2010 was 171,100, some 35%, or 93,100 people, lower than the net overseas migration recorded for the year ended 31 December 2009.
The research also shows that Asian born Australians are on the brink of overtaking their European born counterparts for the first time in the country's history. More than two million Asians now call Australia home and the number of Asians in Australia has almost doubled in a decade, from 1.03 million in the middle of 2000 to 2.1 million in the middle of last year. Around half arrived as students, the remainder as skilled migrants or through family reunification programs.
The number of Chinese-born people in Australia has more than doubled from 148,000 to 380,000 in the decade to June last year. The number of Indian born residents has more than tripled during the same period, from 96,000 to 340,000. The biggest population lives in Melbourne where they have pushed out Italians to form the largest non-Anglo community.
It is a massive shift that has happened in a very short space of time, according to Bob Birrell, director of the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University. He reckons close to one in ten people in Australia were born in Asia. 'There is nothing like this in other countries including the United States and Canada which are considered highly multi cultural,' he explained.
