ACT pips NSW in population growth

Australia's population is growing faster than at any time in the past two decades, a new study shows.

As the nation swells, so too does the ACT, which is growing faster than NSW, South Australia and Tasmania. At 1.7 per cent national growth, 359,000 more people in the 12 months to June was the highest population rise since 1989, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Australia's population is now 21.5 million.

The boom was mainly driven by overseas migration almost 60 per cent of overall growth.

A demographer at the Australian National University, Dr Siew-Ean Khoo, said, ''This past year has been one of the largest intakes of migrants, particularly skilled migrants, to Australia.''

She said migrant workers were filling the holes created by the skills shortage, and were making the most of migrant policy. Next year's migrant worker intake was set to rise by 20 per cent, but Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has signalled that the global financial crisis might result in a lower target.

Dr Khoo said the economy should be able to absorb further high growth rates. Canberra's growth rate of 1.3 per cent relied on births rather than migration.

Natural rises made up the vast majority of the ACT's growth, which Dr Khoo attributed to a younger population.

She was surprised the ACT's growth rate was greater than that of NSW. ''But lately there's been a decrease in the proportion of overseas migrants going to NSW, and more of them [are] going to states like Western Australia and Queensland.''

Those two states attracted the lion's share of national population growth. The national fertility rate is at its highest since 1981, at 1.93 children per woman, and infant mortality is at a record low.