The share of Sydney suburbs where deaths outnumber births has almost trebled in the past five years as the effects of population ageing reshapes neighbourhoods across the city.
There were more deaths than births in 12 per cent of Sydney suburbs last financial year, up from only 4 per cent in 2017-18, Bureau of Statistics regional population figures show.
Deaths outnumber births in a growing share of Sydney suburbs.Credit: Louise Kennerley
Greater Sydney had 4000 more deaths during the year to June 2023 than over the same period five years earlier.
In Castle Hill East, deaths outstripped births by 214 in 2022-23, more than any neighbourhood in the Sydney Basin. The next largest natural population declines were in Sylvania-Taren Point (-119), Turramurra (-113) and Hunters Hill-Woolwich (-113).
The gap between births and deaths in the whole of Greater Sydney has been narrowing; in 2017–18 births outnumbered deaths across the metropolitan area by 37,636 but by last financial year that had fallen to 28,511, a decline of 24 per cent.
Despite this trend, strong overseas migration meant Sydney’s population grew by 2.8 per cent in 2022-23, a faster rate than at any time in the past two decades. The city added 147,000 people in the year, lifting the population to 5.45 million.
Natural population increase or decline (a measure of births minus deaths) is one of the three drivers of local population, along with the movement of people within Australia and overseas migration.
Deaths either outnumbered births or were roughly equivalent to births in many wealthy suburbs on Sydney’s north shore, northern beaches and eastern suburbs in 2022-23.
Rise of the tombstone suburb: Wealthy Sydney areas where deaths outnumber births
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23.04.2024
The share of Sydney suburbs where deaths outnumber births has almost trebled in the past five years as the effects of population ageing reshapes neighbourhoods across the city.
There were more deaths than births in 12 per cent of Sydney suburbs last financial year, up from only 4 per cent in 2017-18, Bureau of Statistics regional population figures show.
Deaths outnumber births in a growing share of........
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