Australia to reach population milestone decades ahead of schedule

Australia's population is expected to reach 27 million on Thursday. It comes well ahead of 2002 predictions from the Howard government's first inter-generational report which forecast that the national population wouldn't reach 26 million people until 2042. Social researcher Mark McCrindle said Australian households are paying the price as migration hits new records. Australia has added one million people in just 18 months, with one person added every 50 seconds. “We’ve massively overshot or grown the growth factors through policy compared to what the model said, and now we're having to play catch up,” Mr McCrindle told Sky News host Peta Credlin. “The demand is greater than the supply and Australian households are paying the price.”