Australia's population reaches 22.5 m

14:49 AEST Thu Sep 29 2011

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More than 22.5 million people now call Australia home and migrants are helping to boost the numbers

At the end of March this year there were 22,546,300 Australian residents - an increase of 1.4 per in one year.

However, the annual rise of 312,400 more people, was the slowest in five years, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) preliminary figures released on Thursday show.

Net overseas migrants - the number of those arriving minus those who departed - accounted for 54 per cent of the annual growth.

The natural increase, reflecting births minus deaths, accounted for 46 per cent.

There was a four per cent increase in the number of registered deaths (146,600), compared to decrease of registered births (291,800).

Western Australia continued to record the fastest population growth rate of 2.2 per cent, while the Northern Territory recorded the slowest at 0.4 per cent.

The state of NSW has the most residents, with just over seven million people, followed by Victoria, with just over 5.5 million residents and Queensland, with more than 4.5 million.

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