The third Intergenerational Report, released by the government in January, projected that Australia's population would reach almost 36 million by 2050, up 13.7 million, or nearly 62 per cent, on the present level.

This is a substantial rise on the projections in the second Intergenerational Report released by the previous government just under three years ago, which envisaged Australia's population growing by 7.6 million, or about 36 per cent, from its 2007 level to reach 28.5 million by 2047.

This is a remarkable difference in less than three years. It stems largely from upward revisions to the assumed net migration rate, from a steady 110,000 a year in the 2007 report to the forecast in this year's report of 180,000 a year from 2012 onwards (after declining from 285,000 in 2008-09).

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