This edited collection shows how demographic analysis plays a pivotal role in planning, policy and funding decisions in Australia. Drawing on the latest demographic data and methods, these case studies in applied demography demonstrate that population dynamics underpin the full spectrum of contemporary social, economic and political issues. The contributors harness a range of demographic statistics and develop innovative techniques demonstrating how population dynamics influence issues such as electoral representation, the distribution of government funding, metropolitan and local planning, the provision of aged housing, rural depopulation, coastal growth, ethnic diversity and the well-being of Australia's Indigenous community. Moving beyond simple statistics, the case studies show that demographic methods and models offer crucial insights into contemporary problems and provide essential perspectives to aid efficiency, equity in public policy and private sector planning. Together the volume represents essential reading for students across the social sciences as for policy makers in government and private industry.

Introduction: Tom Wilson, Elin Charles-Edwards and Martin Bell.-Democracy and Dollars: Use of Demography in Distribution: Patrick Corr.- POPACTS: simplified multi-regional projection software for State, regional and local area population projections: Tom Wilson.- Communicating population projections to stakeholders: a case study from New South Wales: Kim Johnstone.- LSUM A Large Scale Model for Predicting the Pattern of Urban Growth: Martin Bell, David Pullar, Jonathan Corcoran, Jim Cooper.- Applying the insights from the behavioural sciences to population planning: A case study of Indigenous Australians: Nicholas Biddle.- Migration and ageing processes in non-metropolitan Australia: An analysis of thirty years of dramatic change: Trevor Griffin, Neil Argent and Peter Smailes.- The Demography of Coastal Communities Implications for Planning: Graeme Hugo.- Searching for visitors? The utility of web-sourced data for the estimation of temporary populations in Australia: Elin Charles-Edwards.- Spatial Mobility Patterns of Overseas Graduates in Australia: Angelina Tang and Jonathan Corcoran.- Relationships between population change, deprivation change and health change at the SA2 level: Australia 2001-2011: Paul Norman, Tom Wilson and Elin Charles-Edwards.- Measuring Spatial Variations in Wellness Among the Aged: Martin Bell and Jim Cooper.