Why is western Australia sparsely populated?

Answer 1

Compared to the eastern coast and southeastern corner of Australia, there are considerably fewer people in the western half of Australia. This is mainly because the land is less fertile and more of western Australia is taken up by desert, compared to the east, as rainfall is lower.

Answer 2

Many people do live in Western Australia. Perth is an attractive and livable city, with a population of over 1.47 million. Western Australia itself recorded the highest growth in population, with March 2008 statistics indicating that population had grown by 2.6% over the previous twelve months, in comparison to that of the rest of Australia, where population growth averaged 1.6% over the same period of time.

There is, perhaps, a sense that Western Australia is isolated from the rest of the continent, as it is thousands of kilometres between the western and eastern coasts. This tends to give the erroneous perception that not many people live there.

In proportion to the eastern half of Australia, there are fewer people in Western Australia. The land is less fertile and more of western Australia is taken up by desert, compared to the east, as rainfall is lower.

Answer 3

Many people do live in Western Australia. Perth is an attractive and livable city, with a population of over 1.47 million. Western Australia itself recorded the highest growth in population, with March 2008 statistics indicating that population had grown by 2.6% over the previous twelve months, in comparison to that of the rest of Australia, where population growth averaged 1.6% over the same period of time.

There is, perhaps, a sense that Western Australia is isolated from the rest of the continent, as it is thousands of kilometres between the western and eastern coasts. This tends to give the erroneous perception that not many people live there. Also, much of the state is desert, so the population is sparser throughout the interior.

Like South Australia, WA's population is heavily concentrated in the south. North of Perth there are relatively few large towns, with large distances between them. This gives the impression the state is very underpopulated (which by world standards, it is).

Answer 4

Fewer people in the Australian outback dor the simple reason that it does not offer as many resources to attract people to live there. The climate is dry and hot, and not as temperate as the coasts. While the coastal areas are good for tourism, which generates plenty of business, there is little for the average tourist in the outback. Only those people wishing for a genuinely different experience venture into the outback.

Australia's outback has far less vegetation than the coastal areas, so it does not support as wide a variety of crops. Livestock such as sheep and cattle are certainly run on huge properties in the outback, but these properties extend for hundreds to thousands of square kilometres, and do not employ large numbers of people.

The mining centres, of which there are quite a few in the outback, do support business, but the concentration of people in such centres barely extends beyond the mining operations themselves.

Answer 5

Because most of the land is desert, and most people do not want to live in the desert.

Answer 6

Australia's interior is mostly desert. There is a terrible lack of water.

Answer 7

It is mostly a desert.