Residz Team 3 min read
They are highly skilled and well-educated. And they could be the hope of regional Australia, says the Regional Australia Institute in its Big Movers 2023 report.
Millennials aged from 25 to 39, and people born overseas are the largest groups of people moving to Australia’s regional areas, says the report, which analysed Bureau of Statistics census data up until August 2021.
And, it says they will help create a skilled workforce, drive innovation, and increase the competitiveness of regional areas.
It’s an exciting development for regional Australia, given 1 in 5 capital city Australians are contemplating a move to the regions. Let’s dive into the report and pull out the highlights.
Jobs are a pull-factor towards regional Australia
The Big Movers Report shows a wild contrast between the appeal of regional areas for Millennials in 2016 to 2021 compared to 2011 to 2016.
In 2011 to 2016, the capital-to-regional net flow was minus 37,179. From 2016 to 2021 it became positive, with capital-to-regional net flow at 57,252.
It’s a similar story for the overseas-born movers, with capital-to-regional net flow more than doubling to 42,543 in 2016 to 2021 compared with the four years prior.
Liz Ritchie, CEO of RAI, told ABC News that people are moving to regional areas for career and employment opportunities, as much as for affordability.
“It’s not well known that regional Australia is experiencing a jobs boom and we consistently see month on month over 90,000 jobs available across rural and regional Australia,” she told the ABC.
Affordable heartland areas see a surge
The report shows Millennials and overseas-born migrants have a higher propensity to move to more remote places than the general population.
Ms Ritchie says that while larger second tier cities attract the net migration numbers, over 150 LGA areas have experienced a surge in the arrival of Millennials.
She says these are “what we call our ‘heartland’ regions” - smaller rural areas or larger centres that are more isolated.
“This is a really interesting trend that we’re seeing, and a change in our demographic appetite,” she told the ABC. “We believe this is being driven by affordability.”
Queensland leads the way on inflow
At the state level, regional Queensland led the way with the largest inflow from cities and regional parts of other states standing at 245,750. And, regional Queensland emerged as the most popular destination for the overseas-born population from metropolitan areas. T
Also with large total inflows were regional New South Wales at 239,272 and regional Victoria at 164,461.
Their net gains also outpaced those of other regions, with 61,787 in regional Victoria, 54,839 in regional New South Wales and 53,299 in regional Queensland.
In contrast, regional Tasmania and regional South Australia experienced modest net migration gains at 8,411 and 1,716 respectively, while both regional Western Australia and regional Northern Territory witnessed net migration losses.
Interestingly, most regional movers came from the capital city in their own state, with Millennials the most open to relocation from one regional place to another compared with other demographics.
Regional rebalance is good for Australia
It all fits nicely with the RAI’s Regionalisation Ambition 2032 framework, based on the premise that the Australian economy as a whole is forecasted to be better off if the nation sees more balanced population growth.
It shows that 77% of recruiting employers in regional Australia report difficulty filling advertised jobs in July 2022 compared to 37% in 2019. As well, 90% of respondents in our regionalisation consultation survey said their region experienced difficulty finding people with the right skills to fill available jobs.
Move to More campaign attracting citydwellers
As Liz Ritchie told the ABC, “you can’t solve the jobs challenge if you don’t have the people.”
She says RAI has been running a campaign called Move to More to attract citydwellers to the regions, so she was “really pleased this [move to regions] is happening, because we do need to balance our population to ensure those jobs can be filled.”
The RAI says they expect to see the trend of Millennials and overseas-born people moving to regional areas to continue, and the Regional Movers Index compiled in conjunction with the Commonwealth Bank, confirms this.
As Liz Ritchie told the ABC, the trend is still very much “alive and well.”
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