The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released population data for the 2020-21 financial year, which shows the Wagga LGA had a 1.0 per cent increase in residents to more than 66,400 people.

The growth is consistent with recent years despite the usual influx of about 300 international migrants dropping by 75 per cent due to strict border closures.

The gap left by the overseas migrants was instead filled by record numbers of tree changers, as city slickers across Australia escaped to the regions.

Sydney and Melbourne both declined in population and it was the first time since 1981 Australia's regional population grew more than capital cities.

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Wagga mayor Dallas Tout said residents leaving locked-down cities for regional hubs like Wagga was probably the key reason the city's growth avoided the impact of the pandemic.

"People have realised they don't need to live in a capital city to have access to everything they need anymore," he said. "The international arrivals stopped but in those intervening periods the gap was filled by those people migrating from capital cities."

Cr Tout expects the return of international arrivals means Wagga's population growth will become even stronger over the next few years.

"I think this is just the beginning of the curve and as regional cities become more appealing it will increase again and again," he said.

The statistics showed the fastest growing area of Wagga was predictably the northern parts of the city, including suburbs like Estella and Boorooma, which grew in population by 5.2 per cent.

Cr Tout said he expects the growth will continue to be focused north of the CBD over the next couple of decades.

"We're definitely going to begin to encircle the university in the next ten or twenty years," he said.

Preparing the city for this growth and ensuring the region's infrastructure is not overwhelmed by the increase in people is of paramount importance, the mayor said.

"That's not just roads it's also social assets, parks, playgrounds," Cr Tout said. "Because otherwise we will have to play catch up."

He also said it was crucial to support the growth by increasing population density in the central parts of the city, through projects like the Morgan Street development.

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