Immigration drives Sydney and Melbourne population explosion

Wednesday 27 March 2019

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released its Regional Population report for the 2017-18 financial year, which revealed that Melbourne remains the king of the population ponzi, adding an insane 119,421 people to its population in 2017-18, representing growth of 2.5%. Sydney’s population also surged by 93,411 people in 2017-18, representing growth of 1.8% (see below table).

As usual, the growth was driven overwhelming by net overseas migration (NOM):

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.