Melbourne, April 24 – Pressure grows as the population in Melbourne continues to rise. The growth of the area is at a scale never before seen in Australia. It swelled by almost 150,000 people in the last two year.

According to the Bureau of Statistic the city is on track to reach 4 million people by year-end. Annual population growth for Melbourne is pegged at a rate of 2 percent. Last year, the population of Melbourne rose by 74,713 compared to the same period the year before.

On a daily scale, the growth is estimated at 200 per day or almost 1500 per week. It’s growth last year outpaced all other major Australian cities.

Sydney’s population rose by 55,047 amounting to 1.5 percent. Brisbane, on the other hand, grew by 2.3 percent or 43,404. Perth experienced a population boom of 2.8 percent with a total of 43,381.

Sydney still tops the list as Australia’s biggest city with just under 4.4 million. Melbourne is next on the list with under 3.9 million, followed by Brisbane with 1.95 million, Perth 1.6 million and Adelaide with 1.2 million.

At the current growth rate, Brisbane’s population is expected to reach 2 million by October. Melbourne would pass 4 million by December. Sydney is expected to surpass the 4.5 million mark a year from now.

The trend shows that 61 percent of Melbourne’s growth is coming form the city’s fringes. This happened despite the State Government’s policy to grow Melbourne upwards rather than outwards. The outer suburbs expanded the population by almost 46,000 people.

Australia’s total population grew by 360,000 people over the year to 21.4 million in June.

Much of the boom in population comes from the influx of overseas students and new migrants settling in Australia.

Source:
theage.com.au