Regional population growth outstrips metro area for second year running

22/2/99

Western Australia's regional population passed the half-million mark last year and Busselton became the State's sixth major regional centre with a population of more than 20,000.

Commerce and Trade Minister Hendy Cowan said that for the second year running, regional population growth (2.2 per cent) had outstripped the metropolitan area (1.7 per cent), reversing previous trends.

Mr Cowan said that, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in the year to July 1998 all nine of the State's non-metropolitan regions had experienced population growth with the Kimberley (4.6 per cent), the South-West (3.42) and the Peel Region (2.98 per cent) the fastest growing.

Of the State's estimated 1.83 million people, 500,244 or 27.3 per cent, lived in the regions while 1,331,155 (72.7 per cent) lived in the metropolitan area.

Busselton (20,385) joined Albany, Bunbury, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie/Boulder and Mandurah as a major regional centre.

"These figures show that regional WA is alive and well and continuing to make a major contribution to the State's development," Mr Cowan said.

"Recent claims from the Opposition that the regions are in decline are simply not supported by the facts and do nothing to promote confidence amongst country people.

"In fact, as the growth trend continues, government and private sector planners face the challenge of ensuring that future investment in infrastructure and services provision is appropriately targeted.

"Long-term thinking about industrial development, health, education, housing, transport and retail provision will all be affected."

Mr Cowan said the Department of Commerce and Trade derived the regional figures from the ABS paper - Estimated Resident Population 1998 (preliminary).

Media contact: Peter Jackson 9222-9595