This document was added or updated on 31/10/2012.

POPULATION GROWTH AND TURNOVER IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS


Introduction
Highlights from this release
Further information


INTRODUCTION

Have you ever wondered which Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Australia have grown the most between censuses? Or which LGAs have the highest turnover of people moving into and out of them?

A new issue of the 'Perspectives on Regional Australia' series, released by the ABS on 29 October 2012, uses 2001 and 2006 Census data to examine these questions. Perspectives on Regional Australia: Population Growth and Turnover in Local Government Areas (LGAs), 2001 to 2006 (cat. no. 1380.0.55.007) uses common concepts of ‘growth’ and ‘turnover’ to explore which LGAs in Australia:

• experienced high population growth between 2001 and 2006;
• experienced high ‘turnover’ rates of people moving into and out of them between 2001 and 2006;
• experienced high growth between 2001 and 2006 and also high (or low) movement of people into and out of them between 2001 and 2006;
• experienced low growth between 2001 and 2006 and also high (or low) movement of people into and out of them in between 2001 and 2006.

Population growth and turnover are of interest for the planning, design and delivery of services and infrastructure in regions. In contrast to population growth rates, turnover rates measure the extent to which people move into and out of a region. Population turnover rates indicate change in the composition of a region, and are of strong interest because they can help understand, for example, why the characteristics and needs of a region are changing significantly, even if the population count is relatively stable.


HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS RELEASE

The median population growth rate, using counts from the Census, across all LGAs in Australia was 0.7% between 2001 and 2006, and the median turnover rate was 499.6 persons per thousand. However, LGAs experiencing high population growth based on Census counts between 2001 and 2006 did not necessarily have high population turnover in that same period. For example, Ballarat (C) had an annual average population growth rate of 1.4% between 2001 and 2006, but a population turnover rate of 347.8 per thousand between 2001 and 2006.

To examine LGAs from both a population growth and a population turnover perspective, LGAs were grouped into one of four categories, with:

• High average annual population growth rates between 2001 and 2006, and high population turnover rates between 2001 and 2006:
• High growth and low turnover;
• Low growth and high turnover;
• Low growth and low turnover.

LGAs were classified as high/low population growth if their average annual population growth rate between 2001 and 2006 based on Census counts was above/below the median annual average population growth rate for all LGAs in Australia. LGAs were classified as high/low turnover between 2001 and 2006 based on Census counts if their population turnover rate between 2001 and 2006 was above/below the median turnover rate for all LGAs in Australia.

Map 1 presents the results of classifying LGAs into one of these four categories.

Many LGAs in Category One, with high population growth and high turnover between 2001 and 2006 based on Census counts were in mining areas in regional Western Australia and Queensland - such as East Pilbara (S) and Roebourne (S) in Western Australia and Bowen (S) in Queensland - and in inner cities (e.g. Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Sydney).

Category Two LGAs (high growth/low turnover) were typically larger regional centres and areas of new housing, such as Cairns (C) and the Gold Coast in Queensland, Wagga Wagga (C) and Albury (C) in New South Wales, Ballarat (C) in Victoria, Murray Bridge (RC) in South Australia, and Albany (C) in Western Australia.

Category Three LGAs (low growth/high turnover) were typically in rural and remote areas (e.g. Cobar (A) and Murrumbidgee (A) in New South Wales, Longreach (S), Charters Towers (C) and Cloncurry in Queensland, and Coober Pedy (DC) in South Australia).

Category Four LGAs (low growth/low turnover) were typically in regional areas with older populations, such as Broken Hill (C), Gundagai (A) and Tenterfield in New South Wales, Launceston (C) in Tasmania, Ararat, (RC) Hepburn (S), Southern Grampians (S) in Victoria, and Renmark Paringa (DC) in South Australia.


FURTHER INFORMATION
Additional analysis, and population growth and turnover data for all LGAs, are available in Perspectives on Regional Australia: Population Growth and Turnover in Local Government Areas (LGAs), 2001 to 2006 (cat. no. 1380.0.55.007)including data for all LGAs, available from the Downloads tab. The publication also includes a detailed explanation of the methodology used and the limitations of using Census data to calculate population growth and turnover.