AUSTRALIA’S POPULATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 288, 2 November 1933, Page 6

AUSTRALIA’S POPULATION.

The final count of the census taken in Australia this year gives a total population of 6,530,600, nearly two-thirds being domiciled in the two States of New South Wales and Victoria. Only Queensland and South Australia among- the others have more than half a million inhabitants, the former being within sight of its million population, while the latter has but little passed the half-million figure. These figures serve to emphasise the disproportion of the people to the States. Expressed another way, 80 per cent, are in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. These are the richest territories and naturally attract a greater proportion of Australians, but the position is one that cannot be viewed otherwise than with concern. Moreover, practically one-half of the people reside in the capital cities, Sydney having more than a million and a quarter and Melbourne slightly more than one million. In 1901 the total metropolitan population was 1,388,185, and at that time Melbourne’s total exceeded Sydney’s—sol,sßo compared with 496,990. In the intervening period Melbourne has doubled its population, but the growth of Sydney has been on a much greater scale. The development of the capital cities has been very much at the expense of rural areas, and a country of Australia’s size should carry a very much larger number of people than it does to-day. The average annual rate of increase is a matter upon which the Commonwealth Statistician not long- ago commented. Since the census of 1921 it has been 1.63 per cent-., one of the highest in the world, but last year it was only 0.76. This rate compares favourably with the United Kingdom’s and most European countries’, but is below that of Canada, the United States and Asia. The birth rate in 1932 was the lowest ever recorded at 16.94 per 1000. It was fortunately accompanied by the lowest death rate that Australia has known, and with the exception of New Zealand the lowest in the world. But the annual rate of increase has been showing a declining tendency for several years past and the reduction in the number of deaths, satisfactory as it is, does not compensate for the more rapidly decreasing birth rate. Australia is among the lowest countries in the world in density of population, and its figure of 2.18 per square mile emphasises the sparse population of the island continent.