The Impact of Population Growth on Local Community Satisfaction in the Victorian Local Government System

Abstract

The scholarly literature has shown that population growth affects not only local and national economies, but also the quality of community life. Using the most recent 2014/2015 to 2017/2018 local government satisfaction data, we empirically examine the impact of population growth on overall community satisfaction, as well as some other sub-dimensions of resident satisfaction, in the Victorian state local government system in Australia and then investigate the differential effects of population growth on community satisfaction in urban and regional councils. Our findings show that population growth negatively influenced overall community satisfaction and some other sub-dimensions of local resident satisfaction. Moreover, population growth generated greater dissatisfaction in regional councils compared to urban councils. We conclude by considering the public policy implications of these findings.