Victoria's 2018 population growth the fastest across Australia

Australia's population grew by 1.6 per cent during 2018, according to the latest figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

ABS Demography Director Beidar Cho said: "Steady growth over recent quarters has resulted in a population of 25.2 million people at 31 December 2018."

The number of births in 2018 reached an all time high of 314,900, 161,900 of these were male and 153,000 female.

The previous record was 312,200 in 2012. There were fewer deaths in Australia during 2018, compared with 2017 (158,500 in 2018 and 160,100 in 2017).

As a result, natural increase was 156,300 people in 2018, compared with 144,100 in 2017.

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Natural increase (births minus deaths) accounted for 38.6 per cent of population growth, while net overseas migration accounted for the remaining 61.4 per cent. 

Net overseas migration for 2018 was 248,400 people, which was higher than the 2017 figure of 241,700. This is due to a decline in overseas migration departures (281,600 in 2018 compared with 289,700 in 2017) and relatively stable overseas migration arrivals (530,100 in 2018 and 531,400 in 2017).

Victoria continued to have the highest growth at 2.2 per cent and Tasmania continued to have its stronger growth (1.2 per cent) in comparison with recent years.