Australia’s population is set to skyrocket in the next decade – here are the cities where the numbers will soar the most

Australia’s population is expected to increase by four million over the next decade, even as overseas immigration slows.

This would be equivalent to adding the combined populations of Brisbane, Adelaide and Darwin by 2033.

Australia’s two largest states are expected to add 2.5 million more people – or almost Brisbane’s current population – to live in Australia’s two largest states over the next 10 years.

The federal government’s Population Center has released new projections for the next decade, which can be accessed through an interactive chart.

Australia’s total population is expected to rise by 4.25 million, or 16 percent, to 30.887 million, up from 26.637 million at the end of June.

This will happen even as net overseas immigration slows from recent record highs and the government tightens rules for international students.

Australia’s population is expected to increase by four million over the next decade – even as overseas immigration slows (pictured at Sydney Town Hall railway station).

Victoria’s population was expected to grow by 20 per cent, or 1.389 million people, to 8.204 million over the next decade, putting further pressure on Melbourne.

New South Wales is expected to see its population grow by 13.5% to 8.347 million as 1.124 million new residents move in, making Sydney even more unaffordable.

The influx will see 2.5 million new people move to Australia’s two most populous states over the course of a decade.

The population of Queensland, the biggest beneficiary of interstate migration, was expected to grow by 875,100 people, or 16 per cent, to 6.33 million.

A record 518,100 net overseas migrants moved to Australia during the last financial year.

1.625 million migrants moved to Australia in the five years to June 2027, according to the Treasury’s semi-annual economic report.

This was much higher than the 1.495 million over five years predicted in the May Budget.

Annual enrollment is expected to slow to 375,000 in 2023-24, but will fall to the pre-pandemic level of 250,000 in 2024-25.

Acting Treasurer Katie Gallagher released a population statement on Friday, promising a slow pace of immigration.

“Net overseas migration is expected to decline to around pre-pandemic levels over the next few years, and population growth is projected to decline over the medium term as our population continues to age,” she said.

It took Australia’s population 14 years to grow from 20 million to 25 million between 2004 and 2018.

The country’s population will likely take a decade to grow from 23 million in 2013 to 27 million in 2024.

The federal government’s Population Center has released new projections for the next decade, which can be accessed through an interactive chart. Australia’s total population was expected to grow by 4.26 million, or 16 percent, to 30.887 million from the current 26.627 million (pictured: Melbourne on New Year’s Eve 2022).

So the Population Centre’s projections that Australia will add four million more people by 2033 are consistent with data from the past decade, which included pandemic border closures in 2020 and 2021.

The Treasury’s Intergenerational Report, released in August, forecast Australia’s population will reach 40.5 million by mid-2063.

But the first Between Generations report, published in 2002, predicted Australia’s population would reach 25 million by 2042 – a milestone reached in 2018, or 24 years earlier than predicted.