Melbourne swells by 327 people a day and is on track to become nation’s biggest city within 10 years

Melbourne is adding 327 people a day, with new figures suggesting the city is on track to overtake Sydney as Australia’s largest city within a decade.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows last year was the fourth successive year in which Melbourne has added more than 100,000 residents.

Demographer with ID consultants Glenn Capuano told Ross and John there is a real prospect that Melbourne will become the biggest city in Australia.

“If the current rate of growth continues that will certainly happen within the next 10 years,” Glenn said.

“The gap is certainly narrowing, in absolute terms and percentage terms.

“One of the big gains for Victoria in the last few years has been people from interstate, particularly from New South Wales or people coming back from Western Australia at the end of the mining boom.”

Click PLAY below to hear the details

Professor of Planning at RMIT Michael Buxton told Neil Mitchell there are really only three options to deal with the population boom.

“It’s not too late to fix, there are options,” he said.

“It’ll either grow the way it is and governments can try to fix the infrastructure or we can adopt a regional policy and try to move people out of Melbourne or limit population, they’re about the three options.

“Melbourne’s population growth rate is one of the highest in the developed world.”

Click PLAY below to hear more