VICTORIA

STATE SUMMARY

Victoria's estimated resident population at June 2015 was 5.94 million people, an increase of 99,400 people since June 2014. This was the second-largest population increase of any state or territory, behind New South Wales (104,300 people). Victoria's population increased by 1.7% between June 2014 and June 2015. This was the fastest growth rate of all states and territories, and above the national growth rate of 1.4%.

POPULATION CHANGE IN GREATER MELBOURNE

At June 2015, there were an estimated 4.53 million people resident in Greater Melbourne, an increase of 91,600 people from June 2014. This was the largest growth of all Greater Capital Cities in Australia. Greater Melbourne's rate of growth for this period was 2.1%, accounting for 92% of Victoria's total growth. As at June 2015, Greater Melbourne had 76% of Victoria's total population.

Of the ten SA2s with the largest growth in Australia between June 2014 and June 2015, seven were in Greater Melbourne. The SA2s with the largest growth in Australia were Cranbourne East in Melbourne's outer south-east (up by 4,600 people) and South Morang in Melbourne's outer north (4,200).

Growth in the outer suburbs of Greater Melbourne contributed largely to Victoria's population growth between June 2014 and June 2015. This reflects greenfield development which continued to be predominantly in the west, south-east and north of Melbourne.

Melbourne - West had the largest growth of all SA4s in Greater Melbourne, with an increase of 20,900 people. This was followed by Melbourne - South East (up by 18,200 people) and Melbourne - Inner (17,400). Melbourne - West and Melbourne - Inner had the fastest growth (both up by 3.0%), followed by Melbourne - South East (2.5%), Melbourne - North West (2.4%) and Melbourne - North East (2.3%).

Melbourne - South East was the most populous SA4 in Victoria at June 2015 with 751,000 people. The fastest-growing SA2s in Melbourne - South East between June 2014 and June 2015 were Cranbourne East (up by 32%), Beaconsfield - Officer (14%) and Cranbourne North (7.9%). Cranbourne East was also the fastest-growing SA2 in Victoria.

The population in the Melbourne - North East SA4 grew by 11,200 people (2.3%) in the year to June 2015. Melbourne - North East contains South Morang, which had the second largest growth of all SA2s in Victoria, up by 4,200 people, and Epping which grew by 3,300 people. South Morang has been the most populous SA2 in Victoria since 2010, and surpassed 59,300 people in 2015.

Inner-city and inner-suburban residential development was another driver for population growth in Greater Melbourne. Melbourne - Inner was one of the fastest-growing SA4s in the state between June 2014 and June 2015, up by 3.0% to reach 602,300. Within the Melbourne - Inner SA4, the inner-city SA2 of Melbourne had the largest growth, with a population increase of 2,600 people, followed by Southbank (1,300 people). The SA2 of Docklands had the fastest growth in Melbourne - Inner (up by 8.8%), followed by Collingwood (8.6%), Melbourne (8.3%) and Southbank (8.0%).

SA2s WITH LARGEST AND FASTEST POPULATION GROWTH(a), Victoria
	ERP at 30 June	Population Change
	2015p	2014r-2015p
SA2	no.	no.	%
LARGEST GROWTH
Cranbourne East	18 900	4 600	32.0
South Morang	59 300	4 200	7.6
Epping	39 000	3 300	9.3
Point Cook	47 200	3 200	7.3
Craigieburn - Mickleham	48 300	2 800	6.1
FASTEST GROWTH
Cranbourne East	18 900	4 600	32.0
Truganina	20 000	2 600	14.7
Beaconsfield - Officer	11 800	1 400	14.0
Laverton	7 800	690	9.7
Epping	39 000	3 300	9.3
(a) All population figures presented in this table are rounded. Estimates of population change are based on unrounded numbers.

Population decline

In contrast to the strong growth in greenfield outer suburbs and many inner suburbs, some areas lost population between June 2014 and June 2015. Population decline occurred in 14% of the SA2s in Greater Melbourne. Most of these were established outer-ring and middle suburbs. The largest decreases were in Rowville - Central (down by 270 people), Endeavour Hills (down by 260), Eltham (down by 250), and Hoppers Crossing - South and Yarra Valley (both down by 160).


POPULATION CHANGE IN REGIONAL VICTORIA

The population of regional Victoria grew by 7,800 people (0.6%) in the 12 months to June 2015, reaching 1.41 million. Regional Victoria's share of the state's population was 24%.


Population growth

The areas within regional Victoria with the largest increases between June 2014 and June 2015 were in and around the main regional cities and coastal towns.

Of the eight SA4s in regional Victoria, Geelong had the largest growth, up 5,200 people, followed by Bendigo (1,500), Ballarat (1,400) and Latrobe - Gippsland (1,100).

The four SA2s with the largest growth in regional Victoria were all in Geelong: the SA2 of Grovedale grew by 1,000 people; the coastal towns of Ocean Grove - Barwon Heads by 700 people; Torquay by 680 people and Clifton Springs by 480 people. The three fastest-growing regional SA2s were White Hills - Ascot (up by 4.6%) in Bendigo, Grovedale (4.5%) in Geelong and Strathfieldsaye (4.1%) in Bendigo.


Population decline

Population declined in 45% of SA2s in regional Victoria between June 2014 and June 2015, with almost half of these decreasing by 1.0% or more. Five of the ten fastest-declining SA2s were in the SA4 of North West. The four fastest-declining SA2s in Regional Victoria were Mildura Region (down by 3.4%), followed by Seymour Region (down 3.3%) and Otway and Swan Hill Region (both down 3.1%). Swan Hill Region also had the largest decline, down by 200 people.


POPULATION DENSITY

At June 2015, the population density of Victoria was 26 people per square kilometre (sq km), the second highest of all states and territories after the Australian Capital Territory (170 people per sq km). The population density of Greater Melbourne was 450 people per sq km, which was the highest of any capital city.

Within Greater Melbourne, the SA2 with the highest population density was inner-city Melbourne, with 14,100 people per sq km. This was followed by nearby Carlton (9,800 people per sq km) and Fitzroy (8,300). Melbourne SA2 also experienced the largest increase in density in 2014-15, up by 1,100 people per sq km. The next largest increases occurred in Collingwood (up by 530 people per sq km) and Southbank (440).

CENTRE OF POPULATION

At June 2015, Victoria's centre of population was in the suburb of Hadfield. In the ten years to 2015, the centre moved 2.6 kilometres north-west, away from Melbourne's central business district.

Greater Melbourne's centre of population at June 2015 was in the suburb of Glen Iris, near the Monash Freeway.