Loading ...THE Australian Bureau of Statistics has confirmed what many people in Glenelg’s rural townships have long-known – the population is shrinking.
While the census provides us with a snap-shot of our community every five years, the bureau’s most recent figures look at population change every year over the past decade, revealing a shrinking population in the Glenelg Shire since 2007.
In 2001, the shire’s population was 20,392 and, after reaching a peak of 20,495 in 2006, over the 10 years to 2011 it dropped by a total of 2.7 per cent, or 0.3 per cent annually, to 19,843.
The population in the northern half of the shire decreased more than anywhere else in Glenelg, from 3554 to 3146 — a drop of 11.5 per cent, which is 1.3 per cent annually.
The only municipalities to record growth in the Barwon South West Region were Greater Geelong, the Surf Coast Shire and, closer to home, Moyne Shire and Warrnambool City.
Roughly 40 per cent of regional towns in Victoria have declined in population in the past decade, and half of those by more than five per cent.
Read more in Wednesday’s edition of the Portland Observer.
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