Migrants help population rise
IMMIGRANTS played a large part in increasing Toowoomba’s population between 2016 and last year according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The population for the Toowoomba Regional Council area increased by 1.1 per cent between 2016 and 2017 from 164,595 to 166,409.
In that year, 651 immigrants moved to the area from overseas, compared with 311 people relocating from within Australia.
Natural increase, such as new births, accounted for the greatest rise in the number, contributing 852 new residents.
Toowoomba Mayor Paul Antonio said the statistics were no surprise to him as he had seen thousands of migrants come to town.
“We are a welcoming place, we always have been,” Cr Antonio said.
“Since time began Australia has been welcoming people from four corners of the Earth and Toowoomba in particular has welcomed people, nothing has changed.
“If the numbers are keeping true to what they have been over time, you may find a couple of hundred of those international migrants came here as refugees.
“That’s been the number we’ve been getting per year, 200 refugees coming per year to Toowoomba.”
Toowoomba is classified as an official refugee welcome zone.
Cr Antonio said he believed the majority of migrants who moved to Toowoomba came from India, followed by the Philippines.
“They come for opportunities particularly in education,” he said.
“People want to learn here, that’s the reason people come to town.”
The population of the Toowoomba city area has grown by about 16,000 people in the past decade.
In 2007, the Garden City had a population of 119,863.
Ten years later this had grown to 135,631, a 12 per cent increase.