Australia Yearbook - 2001

132 Year Book Australia 2001
5.3 POPULATION OF AUSTRALIA
Million
20
15
10
5
0
1788 1830 1872 1914 1956 1999
Source: Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia 1901–1910; Australian Demographic
Trends (3102.0); Australian Demographic Statistics (3101.0).
5.4 POPULATION, Australia’s States and Territories—1901 to 1999
NSW Vic. Qld SA WA Tas. NT
As at 30 June ’000 ’000 ’000 ’000 ’000 ’000 ’000 ’000 ’000
1901 1 361.74 1 203.00 502.28 356.07 188.57 171.7 4.77 . . 3 788.12
1909 1596.70 1 259.46 572.18 387.79 263.52 189.24 3.54 . . 4 272.44
1919 1 996.36 1 473.9 723.17 468.49 319.64 204.43 4.77 2.36 5193.10
1929 2 502.63 1 768.58 899.79 572.37 421.06 216.50 4.46 8.49 6 393.88
1939 2 748.39 1 878.48 1 018.01 596.56 470.04 237.42 6.28 12.57 6 967.75
1949 3 092.62 2 142.99 1 159.12 679.31 532.19 267.06 13.39 21.39 7 908.07
1959 3 759.83 2 785.91 1 468.24 920.90 712.07 339.38 24.09 46.07 10 056.48
1969 4 441.19 3 385.04 1 763.09 1 139.33 954.85 384.89 72.96 121.66 12 263.01
1979 5 111.13 3 886.41 2 214.77 1 301.11 1 246.61 420.76 114.15 220.80 14 515.73
1989 5 776.28 4 320.16 2 827.64 1 419.03 1 578.43 455.26 161.18 276.43 16 814.42
1999 6 411.68 4 712.17 3 512.36 1 493.07 1 861.02 470.26 192.88 310.17 18 966.79
Source: Australian Demographic Statistics (3101.0); Australian Demographic Trends (3102.0).
ACT
Aust.
Population growth
Population growth results from natural increase
and net overseas migration (net permanent and
long-term arrivals and departures plus an
adjustment for category jumping).
Australia’s population grew from 3.8 million at
the turn of the century to 19 million in 1999.
The second half of the century has seen higher
rates of growth than the first due to strong
natural increase, with the post World War II baby
boom and falling death rates, as well as increased
net overseas migration. Natural increase has been
the main source of the growth since the turn of
the century, contributing two-thirds of the total
increase between 1901 and 1999.
Net overseas migration, while a significant source
of growth, is much more volatile, fluctuating
under the influence of government policy as well
as political, economic and social conditions in
Australia and the rest of the world.
The yearly growth rates due to natural increase
and net overseas migration from 1901 to 1999
are shown in graph 5.6.
In 1901 the average annual rate of natural
increase was 14.9 per 1,000 population. It varied
considerably over the next 30 years and by the
mid-1930s the rate was 7.1 per 1,000. In the post
war years the baby boom, and the immigration
of many young people who then had children in
Australia, increased Australia’s birth rate and the
rate of natural increase. Natural increase was
over 13 per 1,000 population every year from
1946 to 1962.