This research investigates patterns and dynamics of population, migration and economic change in Australian regional urban centres 2011–2016 through the changing economic profile and performance of Australia’s regional urban centres and assesses how demographic and migration patterns are shaping and responding to economic change.

The contribution of regional urban centres to Australia’s economic and population growth has been a topic of growing policy interest in the past two decades, as a result of rapid growth in the major cities and concerns for parts of regional Australia that have experienced population decline. Associated with these trends is the distribution of economic activity and employment—particularly as traditional regional strengths such as agriculture, manufacturing and mining have declined as sources of employment in recent decades.

This analysis identifies three significant trends: larger and metropolitan-proximate regional urban centres are generally increasing in population more rapidly than other regional urban centres; coastal urban centres have experienced faster population growth rates than inland urban centres; and population losses tend to be concentrated in inland, smaller, remote and often resource-reliant towns.