STATE Growth Minister Matthew Groom has warned of a ''death spiral'' that may see a permanent decline in the state's population.
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The government has set a target of boosting Tasmania's population to 650,000 by 2050.
Mr Groom said told a budget estimates hearing on Friday that the target wasn't a magic number, but a commitment to pursue growth.
''There's a lot of things we need to do,'' Mr Groom said.
''If our population goes into population decline, that potentially creates what they refer to as the ''death spiral'' circumstance where the capacity of the population to be able to support essential services becomes so compromised that it causes people to leave and so therefore you go into permanent decline.
''We must recognise this as a problem,'' he said.
The state's current population is about 515,000
