Based on the population benchmark from the results of the 2011 Population Census, the population figures for end-2006 to mid-2011 have been revised (Table 2).
Government news release, February 21
That brief statement was buried 10 paragraphs down in the news release and it did not say which way the population figures had been revised.
This should be no surprise. It happens every five years at census time. The findings always show a smaller population than our statisticians had projected. But they just ignore it and keep pushing up their forecasts.
The chart shows you how it works. The red line on top represents the semi-annual population growth rate as estimated by Census and Statistics up to June last year, the latest date that an estimate was published before the census data was made available.
The blue line represents the adjusted growth rate that the statisticians have compiled now that they have the hard figures. Notice how their adjustment pushes down the growth rate of earlier years and then pretends that over the last year the growth rate has risen again and is higher than earlier projections.
It is routinely done this way - 'Yeah, we got it wrong but that was a few years ago and now we have it right and, oh dear, look how our population is growing once more.'