Murray River Council’s planning team has undertaken population forecasting via an online demographic tool that predicts how the population will change over the next 20 years.
Council engaged data experts REMPLAN to complete town-level population projections to help inform planning for housing, services and economic growth.
This data is now also available for use by locals, with forecast projections available for each year up until 2041.
For Murray River, the overall population is expected to increase to 16,177 by 2041, with the current population sitting at 12,817.
This data also predicts a spike in almost 2000 extra households by 2041, with the biggest residential increase forecast for Moama.
These population forecasts use estimated residential population (ERP) as a starting point and assess what is driving population change in the area to forecast how the age structure and household types will change as result.
“We use population and housing forecasts to inform the planning of our services, programs, policies, and strategies,” Director Environment and Planning, Rod Croft said.
“It provides important information on how our community and municipality may change in the future and helps us predict how many people will live within our towns, how many jobs there will be and where these will be located.”
“The current projections predict strong growth and paint a very positive picture for many of our towns.”
The projections are broken down into 11 regions and are now available via the REMPLAN Forecast module on council’s website.
These projections will be updated annually, with the first update set for November 2022 to include the latest census data.
“Other organisations and individuals are encouraged to utilise these forecasts for planning, funding applications and projects,” Mr Croft said.
