The Territory’s population had grown to 250,635 people at the end of the June quarter, according to a Northern Territory government report, an increase of 1435 from the June quarter last year.

The figures produced in an NT Treasury and Finance Department population report show the population had increased by 237 people from the March quarter which had a population total of 250,398 people, despite 746 people leaving the Territory, but with a 590 person natural increase (945 births and 355 deaths), and 393 people moving from overseas.

The Territory lost 600 people in the March quarter according to net interstate migration figures, compared to a decrease of 1060 in the June quarter of 2021.

The June quarter 2022 figure was up from 249,200 in the same period last year. The data gave the Territory an 0.6 per cent annual population growth rate (comparing the latest quarter with the same quarter last year), while nationally, the population went up by 1.1 per cent.

The data showed there were 3092 arrivals to the Territory for the quarter, and 3,838 departures from it.

The report stated that in the year to March 2021, net interstate migration in the Territory increased, largely driven by falling interstate departures.

“Over the June and September quarters 2021, the Territory saw the improvements in net interstate migration largely reverse as the Territory recorded unusually high interstate migration levels,” it said.

“The higher than usual interstate migration levels relate to Australia’s COVID-19 vaccination drive and the resulting widespread updating of Medicare residential records, which is used by ABS to estimate interstate migration.”

Population in the Territory, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, turns over by one-third every five years. Last year’s census figures show that in the five preceding years, population turnover was 333 per 1,000 residents.

The ABS said between 2016 and 2021, the Territory had the largest turnover rate of any jurisdiction in the country.

“This was despite a continual decline in its net migration over the past 15 years,” the ABS said.

“Over the five years before 2021, the NT had a population turnover rate of 333 people per 1000 residents, which indicates that one in three NT residents aged five years and over were replaced as a result of interstate migration in this period,” the report said.

“Those who arrived in the NT from a different state or territory were generally younger than those who departed.”

Demographer Simon Kuestenmacher told the NT News age was the major factor behind high turnover.

“The Northern Territory has heaps of people in their 20s and 30s and heaps fewer people in the 50-plus cohort,” he said

“The Territory has a relatively high share of the population as international students and they are a stable chunk of the population but this chunk turnover every four years at best—some may only stay for a semester—so that creates huge turnover.

“And of course, all those young folks in their 20s and 30s are probably here for the adventure stage of the life cycle and once it becomes time to settle down and raise kids, they might go back to wherever their home state is,.”