BOOST FOR SUNNY STATE STATS

THE sunny state has proved it’s one of the most popular places to live with recent figures showing new residents are flocking to the region from both interstate and abroad.

Queensland attracted the second highest increase in new residents of all Australian states and territories last year, boosting its population by 92,453, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) stats.

Only Victoria attracted more people, recoding an additional 99,548 residents, with New South Wales third, with an additional 90,441 residents.

RP data national research director Tim Lawless says while NSW relied entirely on overseas migrants to increase its population, this was not the case for Queensland.

“While both states are sourcing the majority of their population growth via overseas migrants, Queensland has historically recorded a substantial net interstate migrant inflow - last year 11,354 net new residents moved to Queensland from other Australian states while New South Wales lost a net 17,761 residents to other states,” says Lawless.

In raw numbers, Western Australia recorded the fourth largest number of new residents (+83,031) but was the state to record the fastest rate of population growth by quite a wide margin.

The Australian Capital Territory also recorded a rapid rate of population growth, up 2.3 per cent over the 2012 calendar year - the second fastest growth rate of any state or territory.

Tasmania and South Australia recorded the least amount of population growth, up by 0.9 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively.

“Interstate migration has been a drain on both states with a net 2,650 Tasmanian’s moving to another state or territory and 3,345 net South Australians moving interstate over the year,” Lawless says.

While the ABS recorded a record high of 22.9 million residents at the end of last year, Lawless says a more recent estimate can be seen in the ABS Population Clock which is currently indicating 23,094 million residents.

According to the ABS the growth was driven by strong net overseas migration which accounts for 60 per cent of the total population growth and a record number of 305,400 births.

All the state figures combined reflect an annual Australian population growth of 1.75 per cent for the 2012 calendar year.