SYDNEY, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a mass exodus of urban Australians to rural regions, with a record number moving in the past year.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics' (ABS) latest report showed that for the first time in 40 years, the nation's regional population growth outpaced the capital cities, with the regional population growing by 70,900 during 2020-21, in contrast to a decline of 26,000 for the capital cities.
The biggest population drop was in Melbourne, the capital city of the state of Victoria and Australia's second largest city, down 60,500, while the population in Sydney, the country's biggest city, fell by 5,200.
Both cities endured the country's longest COVID-19 lockdowns during the past two years.
Urban and environmental planner Tony Matthews from Griffith University attributed much of that trend to the effects of the lockdowns.
"Most of the growth in regional Australia in the last two years has been people leaving the larger cities," Matthews told Xinhua.
"We can say that with a degree of confidence, because there was very little international migration in the last few years because the borders were closed," Matthews said.
Regional Australia Institute (RAI) chief economist Kim Houghton told Xinhua that he believed the demographic change was a "good sign for more balanced population growth across Australia."
Houghton said there had been an enormous growth in skilled trade and professional job vacancies in regional Australia with RAI data showing unemployment in those areas having dropped to 3.8 percent last December.
The downside of all this activity and population growth, however, is that there have been regional rental shortages, rising property prices and strains on public services.
A report from property analytics company, CoreLogic, released in March showed regional Australian housing values have seen some renewed momentum with a monthly rise of 2.2 percent, the highest in nine months.
"For many years, governments wanted people living in regional Australia ... and then when they did move there, the first thing that happened was there wasn't enough housing and the price of everything went up," Matthews said.
Houghton said that under such circumstances, residents may find it harder to live in a home to meet their requirements, as the supply can't meet the demand.
"Many of the regional inland centers weren't prepared," Houghton said. "So many services such as schools and medical services are stretched."
"In some cases, you get this large new population moving in and they may have much more money and they're prepared to spend more," Matthews said, adding that costs consequently become more expensive for everyone.
The experts believed that although Melbourne and Sydney saw a mass exodus, that situation won't continue now as the international borders have reopened.
"Most international migrants when they first come to Australia will go to either Sydney or Melbourne," Matthews said. "When all the international students and the skilled migrants come back, most of them will also go to those two cities." ■
