Devonport and the South are beating the population drain, but the Burnie-Ulverstone district, the West Coast and the North have lost hundreds of residents.
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According to recently released Australian Bureau of Statistics regional internal migration data for 2015-16, in the last two completed financial years:
- The North-West and West Coast lost a net 804 people to other regions around Australia (in other words, it lost 804 more people to other regions than it gained from other regions);
- the North lost 711 people, net;
- the South gained 1029 people, net;
- the Devonport statistical area level three district gained 171 people from other regions, net;
- the Burnie-Ulverstone district lost 549 people to other regions, net;
- the West Coast statistical district lost a net 426 people; and
- the Launceston statistical district lost a net 603 people.
Demographer Lisa Denny said employment drove population growth, and suggested the figures for different areas were related to their job markets, particularly noting jobs difficulties in the North and on the West Coast.
”What we could assume from those figures is that employment growth has been occurring within the Devonport area, or people are getting jobs in the North-West and choosing to live in Devonport,” Ms Denny said.
She said decisions to move somewhere were based on personal circumstances.
They could be new opportunities or lack of opportunities relating to employment, education or family, or lifestyle decisions.
She said most working age people needed jobs, while there was a trend towards older people moving to be near their children and their grandchildren.
The most recent statewide population figures, for the September quarter of 2016, showed a gain of 720 people.
That comprised a gain of 411 from net overseas migration, a gain of 87 from net interstate migration and natural increase (births less deaths) of 222.
State population had grown by 2593 in the year to September 30.
That took population to a record 519,783 people, according to the ABS estimate.
The annual growth of 0.5 per cent was the strongest in five years. but slower than all other states and the ACT.
