Canberra shared the second highest growth rate in Australia with Queensland, with its 1.8 per cent population growth rate topped only by Victoria at 2.2 per cent.

Australian Bureau of Statistics population data published Thursday showed there were 7574 new Canberrans in 2018.

Ultimately, 423,811 people now called the ACT home.

The majority of new residents, 4014, were from overseas. Births made up about 42 per cent or 3247 of new Canberrans, and interstate migrants made up only about 4 per cent.

Overall, Australia had a 1.6 per cent increase in population. There were nearly 404,800 new Australians in 2018, the majority - about 61 per cent - were overseas migrants.

All up, Australia was now home to more than 25.1 million people in 2018. The Northern Territory had the lowest growth rate, which was also the only negative growth rate, at minus 0.4 per cent.

Canberra's 2018 growth is slightly less than 2017 and 2016, when there were 8748 and 8709 new residents respectively.

The number of interstate migrants in 2017 was nearly double that of 2018, when 672 came from interstate. But 2016 had 1191 interstate migrants.

But it appeared Canberra was getting more migrants from overseas. There were 4014 compared with 3847 in 2016, but was still fewer than 2017, when there were 4348.

In the quarter ending September 2018, Canberra lost 472 people to interstate migration. There was growth from interstate migration in all other quarters.

The number of new female Canberrans in 2018 increased slightly more than the number of men: 4018 compared with 3556.

Canberrans also had 481 fewer babies in 2018 than 2017, when when there were 3728 new births.