Australia Yearbook - 2001

170 Year Book Australia 2001
average to an average now of 1.7. These and
many more changes have been a cause and
consequence of the social, economic and political
change that has swept Australia over the last
century.
Population size and growth
At the turn of the century Australia’s population
of 19,080,800 ranked it as the fiftieth largest
country in the world by population. The
population is currently growing at 1.2% per
annum, which is close to the rate at which the
world’s population is increasing and well above
those of most other OECD countries, as
table C4.1 indicates.
The national population increased steadily in
the first half century after Federation, but as
the chapter’s graph 5.3 shows, it increased
more steeply after World War II.
However, a different picture emerges if we
examine changes in the rate of growth of the
population in graph C4.2 where the
fluctuations are in contrast to the steady
increases depicted in graph 5.3. The two
world wars and the Great Depression of the
1930s stand out as periods of low population
growth while the last half century has been
an era of sustained growth, albeit with rates
higher in the first half of the period than in
the second.
C4.1 AVERAGE ANNUAL RATES OF POPULATION GROWTH
Country/region Year(s) Rate per annum
World 1990–2000 1.4
World 1980–1990 1.7
Less Developed Countries 1990–2000 1.7
More Developed Countries 1990–2000 0.3
Europe and the New Independent States 1990–2000 0.1
North America 1990–2000 1.0
ESCAP Region 1999–2000 1.5
Indonesia 1998–1999 1.4
Australia 1999–2000 1.1
Source: McDevitt 1999; Population Reference Bureau 1999 and 2000; ESCAP 1999.
C4.2 AUSTRALIA, Rate of Population Growth per Annum—1901 to 1999
%
6
4
2
0
–2
1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001
Source: CBCS 1912; ABS 1986; ABS Australian Demographic Statistics (3101.0), various issues.