What is natural increase?
Population natural increase (or natural change) is the difference between the number of births, and the number of deaths over a period of time.
If there are more births than deaths over a period, natural increase will have a positive contribution to population growth.
Absent of net overseas migration, if there are more deaths than births, the population will decline.
Natural increase in Australia
Official information about Australia’s level of natural increase is published in Australian Bureau of Statistics National, state and territory population.
Historically, natural increase has been the main driver of Australia’s population growth. However, while the number of births in Australia has generally increased as the population has grown, the number of babies per woman (referred to as the total fertility rate or TFR) has steadily decreased over time. This means that, although natural increase’s contribution to population growth has fluctuated over time, as the fertility rate has decreased and the population has aged, natural increase has contributed steadily less to population growth.
Role of mortality in natural increase
As Australia’s population has increased, so has the number of deaths. However, life expectancy continues to steadily increase for both men and women. In addition, age adjusted mortality rates in Australia continue to decrease. This means that people are less likely to die in each year of their life than previous generations. This is due to medical advances and improved safety measures.
The decrease in age-adjusted mortality has helped offset the decrease in fertility rates.
While natural increase is an important part of Australia’s population growth, there are some countries, such as Japan, who have in recent years had more deaths than births. Countries with more deaths than births, and without positive net overseas migration will experience population decline.