Gold Coast ‘Capital’ Growth
THE hordes of interstate migrants flocking to the Gold Coast could turn the city into Australia’s de facto fifth ‘capital’ behind Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. The local population is predicted to double by 2050 to 1.2 million thanks to record interstate migration, unprecedented births and the nation’s lowest death rate. Social demographer Mark McCrindle said Australia would reach 22 million people by December, with cities like the Gold Coast leading the way.
Mr McCrindle said the Coast, with 630,000 people could eventually overtake Adelaide, which has 1.2 million people. The Coast is already much bigger than Canberra/ACT (350,000), Hobart (215,000) and Darwin (124,000). Mr McCrindle’s population snapshot of the nation released yesterday shows a country exceeding earlier predictions of growth and population. Based on the current growth rate, the country’s population will have more than doubled to over 44 million by mid-century, he said.
Earlier predictions by the Australian Bureau of Statistics had Australia only hitting a maximum of 26.4 million. Mr McCrindle said more people were moving to Queensland than any other state and most were settling in the southeast.
http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2009/07/24/100961_gold-coast-news.html
