Under population

• Under-population


  A country has a lower population than it could support
• The United States of America and Australia are not very different in size, but the USA has over 300 million people and Australia fewer than 25 million
• Many areas of Australia are empty and the resources are not being used fully, so the country could support a higher population
• Australia is under-populated
• Successive Australian governments have tried to increase its population, to develop the country economically, by attracting migrants from other countries
• From only 3.7 million in 1901, the population has increased to its current 23 million
• Factfile - Australia


  • Area: 7 686 850 km²
  • Population: 23 344 735 (2013)
  • Main agricultural products: wheat, barley, sugarcane, fruits; cattle, sheep, poultry
  • Main industries: mining, industrial and transportation equipment, food processing, chemicals, steel
  • Oil production: 482 500 billion barrels/day
  • Natural gas production: 44.99 billion m³
  • Value of exports: US$258.8 billion
  • Cost of imports: US$239.7 billion
• Many migrants to Australia come from countries in Asia to fill skills gaps in the workforce
• In 2011-12, India (29 018) and China (25 509) were ahead of Australia's traditional source country for permanent migrants, the United Kingdom, which dropped to fourth on the list with 25 274 migrants
• The Australian Industry Group wants the government to increase the number of immigrants from 190 000 this financial year to 220 000 in 2014-15, especially skilled migrants
• The Australian Workplace Productivity Agency has calculated that Australia will need an increase of about 2.8 million people with quite specific skills over the next decade to fill some of those gaps