Australia recorded the first quarterly decline in its population since World War I, as more people left the island nation who did not arrive in the three months to September.
International border closures caused the population to fall by 4,200, or 0.02%, to 25,693,059, the Bureau of Statistics of Australia said. premieres Thursday. Net migration abroad fell by 34,800 in the third quarter, with 55,400 people leaving Australia and 20,600 arriving from abroad.
“Decreases in overseas migration have been observed in the last two quarters,” said Phil Browning, director of Demography at ABS. “The last time we saw the population decrease was in December 1916, during World War I, when the population decreased by 51,500, or 1%.”
Australia closed its international borders last March to curb the spread of Covid-19. The central bank forecasts population growth of only 0.2% in the twelve months ended June this year, compared to 1.7% before the pandemic.
“Migratory growth is unlikely to recover significantly by mid-2022 and depend heavily on reopening borders if Covid-19 vaccines impart immunity to the herd, allowing for greater international mobility,” said economist Ryan Felsman senior of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia securities unit.