Population growth hanging in the balance
Population changes in two ways - from natural increase (births minus deaths) and from net overseas migration (the difference between permanent and long-term arrivals and departures with an adjustment for category jumping).
Over the last twenty years both natural increase and net overseas migration have made a positive contribution to population growth. However, net overseas migration has fluctuated more widely in response to changing economic conditions at home and abroad and variations in the size of the annual Migration Program set by the Government. With an ageing population, an increase in deaths is projected to reduce natural increase to zero sometime in the 2030s.
Further information on population growth is available in the article Population Growth - Hanging in the Balance published in Australian Demographic Statistics, December Quarter 1998 (Catalogue no. 3101.0, $19.50).