The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics report shows the city's fertility rate is rising but is still below the 2.1 births per woman level to maintain the population without migration.

Wagga's percentage increase in birth rate has exceeded other regional cities such as Albury, Wollongong and Newcastle, and even some areas of Sydney.

Wagga City Council mayor Greg Conkey welcomed the result, saying a strong birth rate was one of the elements the city needed in order to meet a population target of 100,000 people.

"We have a very large population of young people in this city and I guess it's not surprising that the birth rate would have increased," he said. "We are not an ageing population, quite the contrary, because of the number of people we have in the defence forces, as well as the university.

"We are not an ageing population and I guess that is why our birth rate is increasing."

Cr Conkey referred to the work of demographer Bernard Salt, who observed that Wagga had a high level of young people during a visit to the city late last year.

In early 2018, the NSW government's regional plan identified Wagga as an area of "significant growth" with a target population of 100,000 by the year 2038.

The Wagga local government area's increase in births was more than 10 times the national average of 1.9 per cent.

The ABS report showed that Wagga exceeded 1000 annual births for the first time in at least six years, with most years since 2012 reporting between 840 and 900 births.

"If we are going to grow to 100,000 plus, we certainly need a number of factors to assist that and one is to encourage more people from overseas to move here," Cr Conkey said.

"We have a high birth rate, and that's excellent as well."

For all Australian women, the total fertility rate was 1.74 births per woman whereas Wagga's fertility rate was 1.93.

Cr Conkey said the number of births was a more important figure to look at than the fertility rate.

"There's a number of reasons why, no doubt, that people are not having as many children these days," he said.

Wagga's fertility rate has risen during 2018, up from a six-year low of 1.85 in 2017.

The ABS report included births to temporary visitors to Australia.

The Wagga Local Government Area also recorded an estimated population increase of more than 500 in the same time period to 64,820 people.

Wagga's increase in births did not appear to come at the expense of having expectant mothers travel to the city from nearby councils, as most recorded their own increase in births during 2018.

Albury saw a 13 per cent increase in births during the same time period but its fertility rate was higher at 2.12 births per woman, just about the 'replacement level'.

Cootamundra-Gundagai saw a 24 per cent increase in births and Coolamon, Junee and Griffith saw 3 per cent increases, while Greater Hume saw a 17 per cent decrease.

Bland Shire had one of the best fertility rates after recording an additional 30 births over 2017's figure.