A Greater Australia: Population, policies and governance - CEDA

Section 2.3Figure 3Australia: Distribution of the total population, 2006Source: ABS, 2008, 192As well as being relatively stable, the Australian population distribution and settlementsystem are distinctive. Figure 3 shows the spread of population across Australia is quiteuneven involving:• A low population density of two persons per km 2;• A high level of urbanisation – 87 per cent live in urban areas;• A concentration within capital cities – 64 per cent;• A strong coastal orientation with 81 per cent living within 50 km of the coast; and• An uneven density – 76 per cent of the people live on 0.33 per cent of the land areawith a density of 100 persons or more per km 2 while 0.8 per cent of the populationlive on 70.5 per cent of the land area at a density of 0.1 persons or less per km 2Table 1 shows there has been an overall shift away from the southeastern states tothe northern and western parts of the country. In 1947 the states of New South Wales,Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania accounted for 78.4 per cent of the nationalpopulation, but by 2006 they had 67.9 per cent of the total. The offsets were thatQueensland increased its share from 14.6 per cent to 19.7 per cent and WesternAustralia from 6.6 per cent to 9.9 per cent. This has been a function of structuralchange in the Australian economy in the last 30 years, with the south eastern states,heavily reliant on manufacturing, suffering substantial losses of jobs in this sector.Although there has been little change in the proportions of the national population livingwithin metropolitan and non-metropolitan Australia, there have been substantial shiftswithin these sectors. Figure 4 shows contemporary patterns of population changeby statistical local area, with a clear pattern of growth being concentrated in coastalareas and areas around major regional cities and a few internal mining areas. On theother hand, those losing population tend to be located inland. It has been argued byA Greater Australia: Population, Policies and Governance75