The Australian way of mating, dying and welcoming changed so much this year that the Bureau of Statistics has had to recalibrate its population clock.

At the beginning of the year the clock showed the country's population rising by one person every two minutes and eight seconds, and the bureau was predicting we would reach 21 million in 2009.

Following new discoveries about birth rates, death rates and immigration, the clock has speeded up. The population now rises by one person every two minutes and two seconds, which means we will reach 21 million in 2008.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/adjusting-the-clock...5/1135445486572.html