Overview
If you feel like Melbourne's getting busier and busier, well, you're not just becoming a grumpy ol' adult. New numbers from the Australian Bureau of Statistics have revealed that the city's had the largest and fastest population growth in the whole country.
Having welcomed more than 125,000 extra people between June 2016 and July 2017, Melbourne's now looking at hitting the five million resident mark before the end of 2018. By comparison, Sydney grew by 100,000 people, which has brought its population up to 5.1 million.
The ABS found that the increase in population is largely due to migration, with 80,000 foreigners making up 64 percent of the Melbourne's recent growth in 2016–17, and seven percent attributed to people moving interstate. It you average it all out, there's around 350 people moving to the city each day, with Cranbourne East booming larger than any other Aussie suburb. Interestingly, Sydney lost more people to other parts of Australia than it gained.
Population growth is mainly concentrated in the three major east coast cities — Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane — though, as Perth, Darwin and Adelaide all saw no more than one percent growth.
The revelations have prompted calls for improved infrastructure and public transport across the city — some of which is already underway, but really can't come soon enough.