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.
The states are primarily responsible for providing infrastructure, but lack the budgets, especially since the pandemic hit revenues. Making up the shortfall depends very much on the Commonwealth.
Anna Boucher, University of Sydney and Robert Breunig, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Australia's population growth is expected to be stagnant over the next two years, due largely to decreased immigration. This won't lead to a quick economic recovery.
If governments are looking for a post-pandemic "baby boom" to help populations grow, then they should increase the amount and duration of paid parental leave for both mums and partners.
Fertility rates: hard to predict.
noBorders – Brayden Howie/Shutterstock
Why there's no need to panic over warning of 'jaw-dropping' fertility decline.
Centrelink queues shocked Australians but long before COVID-19 Western Sydney had job-poor neighbourhoods with very high unemployment rates.
Loren Elliott/AAP
Western Sydney's growth-driven boom had ended before COVID-19 hit. Some neighbourhood unemployment rates were 2-3 times the metropolitan average, with female workforce participation as low as 43%.
It is easy for people in the industrialised world to blame population growth elsewhere for environmental damage. But increased consumption is just as important – if more confronting.
Labor's immigration spokesperson Kristina Keneally says immigration has "hurt many Australian workers". The evidence suggests it hasn't.
A Middle Bronze Age child from the Lebanese site of Sidon buried in a large jar. Smaller ceramics were placed with the dead as funerary objects.
Claude Doumet-Serhal
High fertility is driven by a number of factors including desired family size, low levels of use of modern contraceptives, and high levels of adolescent childbearing.
Rapid population growth and increased consumption are now seen as the main drivers of environmental changes.
from www.shutterstock.com
Discussions about climate change often skirt around the issue of population growth, but it is the main driver of rising carbon dioxide levels and many other environmental changes on a planetary scale.
Endless growth is not a sustainable option for fast-growing Australian cities like Melbourne.
Nils Versemann/Shutterstock
The demands on land and resources from our fast-growing cities are unsustainable, as are the wastes they produce. Yet still our leaders act as if unlimited growth is possible.
Could Darwin one day be home to more than a million people?
Geoff Whalan/Flickr
The government wants more people to live in Australia's north. So we looked at three scenarios to increase the population and the results don't always look good for the north.
Researchers only have access to limited facilities and support for research.
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Given Africa’s projected population growth, management of its environment must be a global priority
Dilapidating infrastructure and poorly trained teachers are just some of the problems plaguing Nigeria’s education system.
RTI International/Ruth McDowall
John Stanley, University of Sydney; Janet Stanley, The University of Melbourne, and Peter Brain, National Institute of Economic and Industry Research
State and local governments can't do much about the rapid population growth in Melbourne, but they can take steps to reduce the costs of growing disparities between the outer suburbs and inner city.