Moving to Australia helps the country to prosper

July 13 2009 by Mark Johnstone

Australian immigration is good for Australia

According to figures from IBISWorld, Australian immigration is helping to slow the ageing of the country's population and is to eventually become the only source of population growth for the country.

The current population of Australia is around 21.4 million, set to increase to an estimated 25.7 million by 2020. IBISWorld says that high immigration levels have slowed the rate of ageing in the population of Australia considerably. The current median age is 36.7, which is set to increase only slightly to 37.9 by 2020, despite having increased from 27.5 in 1971.

Net migration levels are set to total around 2.5 million in the years between 2009 and 2020. IBISWorlds predicts that by the mid-2030's, Australian immigration will be the country’s only option to boost its population, as the average age continues to increase and fertility rates continue to fall causing the number of deaths to begin to exceed the number of births.

It is important that foreigners continue to want to move to Australia so it can continue to be competitive in the global economy. Without attracting people to work in Australia, the country may struggle to gain industry investment. Firms will only establish themselves in countries where there are skilled people to employ.