Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in late March revealed that all six of the Wimmera local government areas underwent a population decline across the 2020-2021 period.

The regional population estimates have shown Horsham saw a 0.3 per cent population decline for the year starting June 30, 2020, Hindmarsh declined by 0.5 per cent, West Wimmera declined by 1.5 per cent and Yarriambiack declined by 2.1 per cent.

This was opposed to other regional centres such as Ballarat and Bendigo, which saw increases of 1.7 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively.

However, despite the estimated decline in population, Wimmera Development Association executive director Chris Sounness said the figures should not be a cause for anxiety.

"The numbers are more optimistic for our region than we have seen for a very long time," he said.

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"Our decrease in population was slower, or less than Victoria as a whole. We did lose a little bit of population, but the whole of Victoria decrease at a faster rate.

"For our region that is quite an optimistic story. Normally our population decline occurs much faster than other parts of the state."

State-wide, Melbourne's population declined by an estimated 60,500 people or 1.2 per cent, and the rest of the state increased by 15,700, or one per cent.

Mr Sounness said the data indicated a slowing down of the Wimmera's population decline - and expected the region's growth to turn around heading forward as migration to Australia returns to pre-COVID levels.

"From the middle of 2022 onwards we expect the population to level off and some of the shires and towns to increase," he said.

"This reinforces the work we are doing in the housing. With the numbers coming out now it shows that growing our housing is the right thing to do.

"If the numbers showed that we were declining at a faster rate than the rest of the state then there would be some argument about the importance of housing in our region.

"This also reinforces the need for public infrastructure, and to make sure we don't miss out compared to the rest of the state when it comes to public infrastructure."

Mr Sounness said there were also other factors that complicated gathering population data, such as a lack of overseas migration and the impact of COVID.

"The caveat on all this is that these are population estimates, and they would have been difficult to do with COVID on top of them. We take everything with a pinch of salt, and they will probably be changed once the census data comes in," he said.

"A lot of people went back to their home country from Australia, so we had a lot of people leave Australia. That is why you don't want to read too much into the figures at the moment."

The Wimmera Development Association will look to the release of census data, set to begin on June 2022 and continue until mid-2023, for more clarification on demographics for the Wimmera Southern Mallee.

Mr Sounness said there was a much-needed update to the population data for the Wimmera Southern Mallee, which was based on 2016 census data.

"For Victoria, at the moment basically, all of the planning decisions from the Victorian government are based on the Census data," he said.

"That wasn't particularly kind for our region. It showed a long-term decline in population and that our population decline is happening faster than anywhere else in the state.

"When the Victorian government comes to allocating resources and working out what infrastructure goes where they are looking that every Victorian makes access to those services. If you have fewer Victorians in your region than you had before, it is hard for the state government to allocate dollars to it."

To see the full Australia Bureau of Statistics report, visit their website.

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