At 30 September 2016, the estimated resident population (ERP) of the NT was 245,700, an increase of 800 (0.3%) from the previous year. Among the states and territories, Victoria had the fastest annual rate of growth (2.1%) while the NT had the slowest growth (0.3%).
Of the population, 78% were Australian-born with the remaining residents hailing from the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Philippines. English was the only language spoken at home by 69% of the population, with Australian Indigenous languages, Greek and Chinese the next most common languages spoken.
In November 2011, the trend unemployment rate in the NT was 4.2%, unchanged from the previous month. The national rate in November 2011 was 5.3%.
there were 123,700 employed persons, 65,800 employed males and 58,000 employed females. Of all employed males in NT, 11.4% were working part-time, compared to 26.5% of all employed females who were working on a part-time basis.
The industries in the NT which made the greatest contribution to the territory’s gross product in 2010-11 in volume terms were: Mining (17.4%), Construction (10.7%), Public administration and safety (9.3%), Ownership of dwellings (9.2%), and Manufacturing (8.4%).
From 2000-01 to 2010-11, the Professional, scientific and technical services industry recorded a 261.0% increase in value added. This represented the highest increase of all industries in the NT. During the same period, the Accommodation and food services industry was the only industry to record a decrease, down by 3.8%.
At the end of June 2009 there were 13,800 operating businesses in the NT, or 300 less than at the same time in the previous year.
The vast majority of these were small businesses, with 59.1% of the total being non-employing businesses and a further 33.8% of the total employing from 1-19 employees.
NT had the highest proportion of businesses employing 20 or more employees in the nation at 7.0%, followed by Tasmania and the ACT both recording 5.2%.