WA leads national population growth

A surge in overseas migration and continued strong interstate migration has resulted in Western Australia’s population growing at its fastest rate in 15 years.

WA’s population grew by 3.3 per cent in the year to 30 September – the strongest rate since 2009, when the state was entering the last mining construction boom.

WA has become the fastest growing state in the country, well ahead of the national population growth rate of 2.5 per cent.

The surge in population growth is also well ahead of the state government’s revised forecasts.

At the end of last year, the state government revised its forecast to 2.4 per cent growth for 2023-24, up from 1.8 per cent announced in its Budget.

That was just above the long-run average growth of 1.7 per cent.

The Bureau of Statistics said WA’s population hit 2,905,922 at the end of September.

That was 10.8 per cent of the national total, of 26.8 million.

Australia’s population grew by a strong 659,800 in the past year, with net overseas migration being the main driver.

"Net overseas migration drove 83 per cent of the annual population growth, while natural increase accounted for the remaining 17 per cent,” ABS head of demography Beidar Cho said.

Specifically, a net 548,800 people migrated to Australia last year, up from 342,000 in the prior year.

The ABS said this reflected an increase in overseas migration arrivals (up 34 per cent), predominantly on a temporary visa for work or study.

The federal government has signalled it plans to tighten rules around temporary visas and student visas, in order to moderate population growth and take pressure off the tight housing market, especially for rentals.

Real Estate Institute of Western Australia chief executive Cath Hart said demand for housing will continue to outstrip supply in WA.

WA’s annual population growth rate equated to an extra 93,000 people in the state, or around 37,000 households

“In the year to September 2023 there were nearly 17,000 completions of private and public dwellings, now compare that to the 37,000 new households in WA in the same timeframe,” Ms Hart said.

“That’s a shortfall of about 20,000 new homes.”

Like the country as a whole, most of the growth in WA came from net overseas migration, which added 67,629 people to the state’s population.

Natural increase (births minus deaths) added about 14,600 while net interstate migration added 11,233 people.

While net interstate migration was the smallest contributor, it is notable that WA was one of only two states with a net gain.

In keeping with a long-running pattern, the other was Queensland – it attracted a net 32,600 people via interstate migration.

WA’s annual growth rate (3.3 per cent) put it ahead of Victoria (up 2.9 per cent) and Queensland (up 2.7 per cent).

Tasmania saw the least growth, at 0.3 per cent over the year, while South Australia grew by 1.7 per cent.

In quarterly terms, WA’s population grew by 0.8 per cent in the September quarter, up from 0.6 per cent in the June quarter.