Australia's population is expected to increase by four million people over the next decade, even as overseas immigration declines.
That would be the equivalent of the nation adding the combined population of Brisbane, Adelaide and Darwin by 2033.
Australia's two largest states are now expected to be home to an additional 2.5 million people within the next decade – or almost the current population of Brisbane.
The federal government's Population Center has released new forecasts for the coming decade, which can be accessed via an interactive chart.
Australia's total population was expected to rise by 4.25 million people, or 16 percent, to 30.887 million, up from 26.637 million at the end of June.
That would happen even as net overseas immigration has fallen from recent record highs and the government has tightened rules for international students.
Australia's population is expected to increase by four million people over the next decade, even as foreign immigration declines (pictured shows Sydney Town Hall train station)
Victoria was tipped to see its population rise by 20 per cent or 1.389 million people to 8.204 million over the next decade, putting additional pressure on Melbourne.
New South Wales would see its population increase by 13.5 percent to 8.347 million, with 1.124 million new residents moving in – making Sydney even more unaffordable.
This influx would see 2.5 million new people move to Australia's two most populous states within a decade.
Queensland, the biggest beneficiary of interstate migration, is expected to see its population increase by 875,100, or 16 percent, to 6.33 million.
A record 518,100 net foreign migrants moved to Australia in the last financial year.
According to the Treasury's Mid-Year Economic, 1.625 million migrants moved to Australia in the five years to June 2027.
This was much higher than the 1.495 million over five years forecast in the May budget.
Annual inflows were expected to slow to 375,000 in 2023-24, but fall to pre-pandemic levels of 250,000 in 2024-25.
Acting Treasurer Katy Gallagher released a population statement Friday promising a slow pace of immigration.
“Net overseas migration is expected to return to around pre-pandemic levels in the coming years, and population growth is expected to decline in the medium term as our population continues to age,” she said.
Between 2004 and 2018, it took Australia's population fourteen years to go from 20 million to 25 million.
It will likely take ten years for the national population to grow from 23 million in 2013 to 27 million in 2024.
The federal government's Population Center has released new forecasts for the coming decade, which can be accessed via an interactive chart. Australia's total population is expected to rise by 4.26 million people or 16 percent to 30.887 million, from 26.627 million now (pictured is Melbourne on New Year's Eve in 2022)
So the Center for Population's predictions that Australia will add another four million residents by 2033 are consistent with the past decade, including the pandemic border closure in 2020 and 2021.
The Department of Finance's Intergenerational Report, released in August, predicted Australia's population would reach 40.5 million by mid-2063.
But the inaugural Intergenerational Report, released in 2002, predicted Australia's population would reach 25 million by 2042 – a milestone reached in 2018, or 24 years earlier than predicted.