COVID-19 halted immigration and housing affordability got much worse. We’d feel the impacts of internal migration and undersupply of affordable housing even if we again blocked migrants from overseas.
Research on where businesses and households want to be points to growth in suburban and regional centres on the coast, with Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth also gaining ground on Sydney and Melbourne.
The latest revised data challenge the popular narrative about a population renaissance for regional Australia and for states and territories that were losing residents to other parts of the country.
Many small towns badly need to attract new blood to prosper. Yet some residents are so bound up in their community – it’s part of their identity – that they struggle with the changes newcomers bring.
Can we now work from anywhere with an internet connection? We interviewed workers who left the city but held onto their jobs to see how they fared. One year on, some had no regrets. Others moved back.
The ‘exodus’ from capital cities amounts to 0.06% of their populations – similar to recent years – and people are still moving to the cities. What’s missing is growth driven by international migrants.
Long before coronavirus hit Australia we were moving less between states and regions. Some worry about economic impacts, but a greater concern is inequality if some people find themselves ‘trapped’.
South Africa’s data collection is constantly improving. That’s especially true when it comes to metrics that weren’t collected or were distorted for political purposes during apartheid.
We read about and watch other people moving to the coast or country and, in doing so, sometimes we’re persuaded to join the seachangers and treechangers ourselves.
Once seen as being driven mainly by retirees, migration out of of our biggest cities to less crowded coastal regions is now being led by younger Australians.