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Oz population hits 20m mark

AUSTRALIA is now officially a country of 20 million people.

And Melbourne is reeling in Sydney as the most populous city.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the nation's population has expanded by 232,000 from December, 2003 to 20,229,000 at the end of last year.

While Sydney's population increased by 33,535 to 4,232,078, Melbourne's rose by 44,759 to a total of 3,600,080.

It continued the pattern of the past five years in which Melbourne had enjoyed greater growth.

Brisbane's population expanded by 2.29 per cent in 2004, with almost 40,000 people moving to the Sunshine State's capital, which now has a population of 1,774,890.

Perth also grew strongly, with an extra 26,141 moving west to bring its total population to 1,457,639.

Adelaide had modest growth of 5218. It made up most of the state's growth of 7500 to 1.54 million.

All states and territories recorded a lift in their population in 2004.

The biggest gain was in Queensland, which was up 2 per cent or 75,100, while the lowest increase was in Canberra, where there were an extra 1200 people, or 0.4 per cent.

Queensland, with 3,919,000, is now just shy of the 4,000,000 mark.

Victoria broke the 5,000,000 mark after the state's population increased by 60,900, or 1.2 per cent.

Western Australia is now just 2000 people short of the 2,000,000 mark, while the Northern Territory has broken the 200,000 barrier.

Interstate migration contributed 44 per cent of Queensland's total population increase. However, West Australia and Tasmania also recorded net interstate migration increases.

The greatest exodus was from New South Wales (27,100 people), followed by South Australia (3700), Victoria, (2100), Canberra (1800) and the Northern Territory (1200).

Although 117,473 moved to Australia permanently, 61,853 left.