Australia is going through a baby boom. Over the last year 293,600 babies were born in Australia; an absolute record number of new arrivals. At the same time, Australia is recording the highest level of overseas migration on record. The steep ‘natural increase” (ie births minus deaths) and the rate of overseas migration have combined to produce the record level of population growth we are currently experiencing – almost 440,000 new residents over the year to March. While the issue of overseas migration has been much commented on, the trend of a rising fertility rate has largely flown under the radar. Based on the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics ( here ) the average Australian woman is expected to have 1.97 children in a lifetime. That’s up from 1.73 in 2001 and the highest rate since 1977. The national fertility rate has been trending upwards since 2001. Not so coincidentally, that is when the baby bonus started. Another important contributor is likely to have been the exuberant economic conditions (notwithstanding the GFC) which have boosted couples confidence in having larger families
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How to manage our population boom?
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