Tasmania’s population surged to a new record in the March quarter, but coronavirus would have slammed on the brakes after that. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said Tasmania gained a net 1683 people in the March quarter, with 1089 of the gains coming from net immigration from overseas. Immigration from overseas would have slowed to a trickle at most in the June and September quarters due to coronavirus movement restrictions. The state gained 298 more people from the mainland than it lost to the mainland in the March quarter. Births exceeded deaths by 296. The changes took state population to a record 539,590. Demographer Lisa Denny said the March figures showed pre-pandemic trends and were a benchmark for that period. Dr Denny said net interstate migration had been trending down and she was not sure what would happen with that in the short term. She said a big gain in net overseas migration had pushed up the overall growth rate, but that trend was likely to end in the short to medium term. Tasmania added about 6000 people in the year to March, an increase of 1.1 per cent. That was a faster growth rate than South Australia and the Northern Territory (which declined) and equal to the ACT and New South Wales. The other states had higher growth rates. Tasmania had 5732 births and 4663 deaths during the year. It gained a net 3668 people from overseas, with 6852 arriving and 3184 leaving. Arrivals from interstate totalled 13,462, while 12,208 left Tasmania to live on the mainland. National population grew by nearly 114,000 people for the quarter and 357,000 annually , to about 25.65 million. The ABS said 61.8 per cent of annual growth was from net overseas migration and 38.2 per cent from natural increase (births less deaths).