Australian population growing at double the world average

Australia's population is growing at double the world average.

Underpinned by an economy that weathered the global financial crisis, Australia grew by 451,900 people in the year to last September, taking it beyond the 22 million mark, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures reveal.

That is an increase of 451,900 people during the year, keeping the growth rate high at 2.1 per cent — almost twice the world average of 1.1 per cent, and higher than China, the US, Canada, Indonesia and most other nations.

The majority of the growth, 66 per cent, was due to overseas migration, with the remainder, 34 per cent, due to there being more births than deaths.

Just to keep up with this population growth Australia needs 451 churches (of any shape and size) every year. One church for every one thousand new Australians.

Instead we're closing churches at an alarming rate.

To turn our decline around, we need 10,000 new churches today to lift the current ratio of one church to 2,000 people, to one church to 1,000 people.

If we keep doing what we have been doing, will we catch up?