Western Australia's population reached 2.45 million at 30 September 2012, an annual increase of 3.4 per cent (81,700 people), according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The Director of ABS Demography, Bjorn Jarvis, said "Western Australia experienced record levels of population growth and the highest annual growth rate since the early 1970s." The state had a high level of net overseas migration of 50,600 people (up 46 per cent), a natural increase (births minus deaths) of 20,000 (up 5 per cent), and a net interstate migration of 11,100 (up 59 per cent) for the year ending September 2012.

"Australia's population increased by 382,500 (1.7 per cent) to reach 22.8 million for the year ending September 2012. It is expected that Australia's population will reach 23 million early in the next quarter."

"Many people will be watching the population clock on the ABS website." Mr Jarvis said.

Net overseas migration (NOM) added 228,000 people to the population to the year ending September 2012 - 32 per cent higher than that for September 2011 (172,500 people), accounting for 60 per cent of Australia's total growth, with the remaining 40 per cent due to natural increase. This is the highest annual increase in NOM in almost five years.

"This quarter's release also highlights a 4 per cent (or 6,000 people) rise in natural increase over the past year, which is the highest increase in almost four years (reaching 154,500 people)," Mr Jarvis said.

The number of births increased by 2.7 per cent (reaching 303,600 births) over the past year and the number of deaths increased by 1.3 per cent (reaching 149,100 deaths) during the same period.

 

Population at end Sep qtr 2012

Change over previous year

Change over previous year

PRELIMINARY DATA

'000

'000

%

New South Wales

7 314.1

86.0

1.2

Victoria

5 649.1

94.8

1.7

Queensland

4 584.6

91.4

2.0

South Australia

1 658.1

16.4

1.0

Western Australia

2 451.4

81.7

3.4

Tasmania

512.2

0.5

0.1

Northern Territory

236.3

4.2

1.8

Australian Capital Territory

376.5

7.4

2.0

Australia(a)

22 785.5

382.5

1.7

(a) Includes Other Territories.

Further information is available in Australian Demographic Statistics, September Quarter 2012