From “Up North” to “Down Under”

Canada and Australia share common patterns of population growth and shrinkage. The population of both countries is concentrated in a few large metropolitan areas, while hinterland areas—located outside commuting range of large metropolitan areas and home to most mining, agricultural and other resource-based communities—are generally in a state of long-term relative and often absolute population decline. In 2006, 80 percent of Canada’s thirty-three million residents lived in urban areas. Between 2001 and 2006, 90 percent of Canada’s population growth occurred in Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs), ¹ with most of that growth occurring in the six largest CMAs. Non-CMAs either experienced relatively lower growth rates or absolute decline, with remote rural areas experiencing the highest rates of population decline (Statistics Canada 2007). On the other side of the world, 85 percent of Australia’s approximately twenty million residents live in urban areas (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] 2010b), with the vast majority concentrating in a few large metropolitan areas. As of June 2009, close to two-thirds of Australia’s population lived in a capital city statistical division (SD), ² where population continues to grow at a rate higher than the rest of Australia. Population losses between 2008 and 2009 mainly occurred in inland rural Australia with levels of decline generally corresponding with degree of remoteness (ABS 2010e).