In recent years the movement of people across Australia, known as interstate migration, has been dominated by a northward stream to Queensland and a southward stream to Victoria, with all other states and territories experiencing net migration losses. In Western Australia, a net interstate migration loss has been recorded in each of the four years since 1999, which is in contrast to the long-term trend of moderate gains in previous years. This loss has resulted

from both an increase in the number of people departing Western Australia and a decrease in the number of people arriving in Western Australia.

Despite this loss, Western Australia has consistently recorded a higher annual population growth than the national average, and in 2003 Western Australia's growth of 1.4% was second only to Queensland (2.3%). In 2003, net overseas migration accounted for the majority of Western Australia's growth (18,000 persons), while natural increase (births minus deaths) accounted for...