A leading demographer has warned that Australia’s mass immigration-driven record population increase will exacerbate the housing crisis and put added pressure on infrastructure.
Australia’s population hit 27 million on Wednesday afternoon after an increase of 624,100 over the past year, according to the Australia Bureau of Statistics’ population clock, with the arrival of 737,000 immigrants making up 80% of the increase while births and deaths remain around the historical averages.
That amounts to one new person added to the population every 50 seconds, and if that rate continues Australia will hit the 28 million mark in August 2025, and has dwarfed a 2002 prediction of 25.3 million by 2042 in the Howard Government’s 2002 intergenerational report.
Mark McCrindle from McCrindle Research told ABC News the rapid pace of growth was coming at the same time as “infrastructure bottlenecks”, and said Australia needed to return to “sustainable growth”.
“People are struggling around education, health supply. People trying to afford a home are really against it [population growth], even though there’s government policies around new home construction,” he said.
Mr McCrindle called for more moderation to deal with housing shortfalls, and said Australia needed a “balance between a natural increase as well as migration”.
“We need new births, we need the young people in our population and the stimulation that provides long-term,” he said.
The previous record was set in 2009 when the population increased by 442,500 under the Rudd Labor government, 41% lower than in 2023.
