The number of people living in regional Western Australia fell last year for the first time in at least a decade, with mining towns such as Leinster, Meekatharra, Kambalda and Coolgardie driving the decline, new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows.
The ABS report revealed wide variations in populatin growth in the year to June 2016, with the nothern coastal suburb of Yanchep leading population growth.
As Australia’s estimated residential population reached 24.1 million, up 1.4 per cent on the previous year, and Sydney's population topped 5 million for the first time, WA’s population increased by 1 per cent to about 2.6 million.
Within this total, Perth's population grew by 1.3 per cent to 2.07 million while the rest of WA suffered a 0.1 per cent fall to 550,000.
Regional Northern Territory (the area outside Darwin) was the only other major statistical district in the country to suffer a fall in population.
The 10 best-performing areas in WA were all within the greater Perth region, with Yanchep enjoying a 29 per cent increase in population, to 18,904 people.
Baldivis, Ellenbrook, Forrestdale and Byford also featured in the top 10 fastest-growing greater Perth areas in terms of population.
Outside of greater Perth, Australind and Busselton were the top performing regional WA areas.
On a national level, eight out of the top 10 areas to experience the largest population decline were either mining areas or service centres associated with mining.
Several locations in Queensland and NSW featured in the list, but Leinster-Leonora in the northern Goldfields region of WA recorded the fastest decline in population, falling by 6.1 per cent in 2015-16.
It was followed by Meekatharra, the outer Perth suburb of Cooloongup, and Kambalda-Coolgardie-Norseman.
On a broader regional level, the Goldfields suffered a 2.1 per cent fall in poplulation to 42,827, while Esperance was down 1.5 per cent to 16,489, the Mid West was down 0.6 per cent to 57,612 and the Pilbara was down 0.2 per cent to 65,675.
