What is shaping population growth in regional Queensland?

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Informed  Decisions

Informed Decisions

Contributor

Key Highlights

  • Regional Queensland is experiencing a notable increase in family-age populations, outpacing other regional areas in Australia. This growth is predominantly driven by Queensland’s major regional cities, reflecting a trend towards younger, family-oriented communities.
  • Coastal and rural regions continue to attract a significant number of empty nesters, leading to couples without children becoming the most common household type, surpassing couples with children. This shift highlights changing household compositions in these areas.
  • The demographic shifts necessitate a focus on providing quality services, education, and employment opportunities to accommodate the growing family populations. Additionally, there's an increased emphasis on catering to an ageing population, requiring enhanced services and infrastructure to support older residents.
  • With diversifying household types, there's a pressing need for varied housing options in appropriate locations to meet the increased regional demand. Concurrently, protecting the natural environment remains a priority, as it is a valued asset among regional Queensland residents.

Regional Queensland’s growth in family age groups is outpacing the rest of regional Australia and is predominantly driven by Queensland’s major regional cities. 


Our population forecasting team recently delivered the Regional Queensland Population Insights Workshop to over 25 councils from across the sunshine state.

The team shared key insights from the 2021 Census and how wider population and housing trends are affecting regional Queensland’s future population outcomes.

You can watch the webinar here and access the slides here.

What are the key insights?

Growth in family age groups is outpacing the rest of regional Australia and is predominantly driven by Queensland’s major regional cities.

While coastal and rural areas continue to attract larger numbers of empty nesters, resulting in couples without children overtaking couples with children as the number one household type.

How will this affect the likely future population?

These underlying demographic shifts are occurring in the backdrop of increased demand for regional living, presenting challenges and opportunities in many Queensland regional communities, including:

  • Very strong growth in families (and young adults) will demand quality services, education and jobs
  • Ageing in place means even more focus on services and infrastructure for an even older population
  • Quality housing choice Households are diversifying (Couples without children are now dominant, lone person catching up)
  • Housing in the right locations to balance increased regional demand
  • Protecting the natural environment. as key asset that is most valued by regional Queensland residents.

Would you like to discover more about the future population of your local area?

We are providing tailored Population Insights workshops for individual councils. Please reach out if you would like a session for your council.

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