As the recession bites harder elsewhere, the inflow of interstate migrants to the ACT is increasing. Figures issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday show that in 1991, interstate migration formed 45 per cent of the ACT’s population growth. In 1988 it was only 21 per cent. The natural increase fell from 64 per cent of the total in 1988 to 47 per cent of it in 1991. Overseas migration, which forms the balance fell from 32 per cent of total in 1988 to 12 per cent in 1991.
The ACT has been seen as a city of immigrants from the rest of Australia since its founding. That image was beginning to change as it was thought natural increase was making up a higher proportion of the total population increase. Yesterday’s statistics, however, show that the trend is the other way. They show that since 1988, Canberra had become even more a town of immigrants.
The 1991 figures put the ACT’s population growth at 2.6 per cent, the highest in Australia, perhaps explaining the strain on some of Canberra’s infrastructure and housing requirements.
The ACT’s population is younger than any other state or territory than the Northern Territory, with a median age of 29.1. The Australian median is 32.5 years.
Life expectancy in the ACT is higher at all ages for both sexes than in the rest of Australia by about six months. This has nothing to do with the lower age structure of the ACT population because it cuts across all age groups. Life expectancy for 60-year-old ACT females, for example, is 23.8 years, compared with the Australian average of 23.3 years. It is more likely to do with lifestyle and proximity to better health facilities.
The ACT was the only place in Australia where the birth rate went up _ from 15.8 per 1000 in 1990 to 16.4 in 1991. The Australian rate fell from 15.4 to 14.1. Marriages that end in divorce are lasting longer in the ACT, up from 10.7 years in 1990 to 11.7 in 1991. Although all figures relating to divorce in the ACT have to be heavily qualified because only 37 per cent of divorces out of the Canberra registry of the Family Court involve ACT residents. Divorces were up 9 per cent in the ACT over the year, but that is a raw figure. The crude marraige rate also increased from 6.1 per 1000 to 6.5 per 1000. Ex-nuptial births rose from 19.1 per cent in 1990 to 19.4 per cent in 1991.
Cancer was the main cause of death in the ACT (28.4 per cent of male deaths and 32.6 of female deaths). The female proportion is much higher than in the rest of Australia where it is 24.9 per cent. The male proportion is slightly higher than the Australian rate of 27.4. Cancer is the cause of a significantly higher proportion of deaths among females in all age groups in the ACT than in the rest of Australia _ as much as 15 percentage points in the 55-64 age group, for example.
The crude death rate fell slightly in the year from 3.9 per 1000 in 1990 to 3.8 in 1991. This is not statistically significant. The infant death rate fell from 9.4 per 1000 live births to 7.6, which continues a general nationwide improvement in infant mortality figures.