BCEC Report
Presentation: Every Person Counts: Planning for WA’s future population
Report SeriesFocus on WA
AuthorsAlan Duncan
PublishedFebruary 2026
PublisherBankwest Curtin Economics Centre
Number of Pages26
View the slides by lead report author Professor Alan Duncan, Director, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre from the launch of the report Every Person Counts: Planning for WA’s future population.
About the report
This twentieth report in the BCEC’s Focus on Western Australia series examines the state’s population story through that wider lens. It asks a set of fundamental questions. What is driving WA’s population growth, and how predictable are those drivers? How do migration, economic cycles and housing capacity shape the state’s demographic trajectory? Why do some regions grow while others struggle to sustain population? And what do these patterns mean for planning, productivity and long term prosperity?
- Migration is a critical driver of economic growth in WA and has materially improved the state’s economic prosperity
- New modelling links iron ore prices and mining investment to population growth
- Indigenous population change in WA is spatially uneven and life-course driven
- WA needs to plan for 4 million residents by 2043
- Housing supply identified as a binding constraint on sustainable growth
The Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre team acknowledges the Wadjuk Nyungar people as the traditional owners of the land on which the Centre is situated.