The Australian Bureau of Statistics report showed the Wimmera was home to the worst performers in western Victoria.

Buloke, West Wimmera, Hindmarsh and Yarriambiack shires took out the bottom four places on the statewide growth league table, with declines ranging from 1.0 to 1.3 per cent.

Horsham Rural City Council’s natural population increased by 68 people, which is an increase of 0.1 per cent.

Overall, the Grampians and Wimmera region lost a net total of 208 people between 2016 and 2017.

In comparison, Melbourne’s best performing areas saw population increases ranging from 2.9 to 8.1 per cent.

Horsham acting mayor Mark Radford said the population rates were unsurprising.

“There is a pattern that as our neighbouring shires get smaller while we get bigger,” he said.

“This is usually due to farming blocks getting bigger and gravitating towards the Horsham area.”

He said one of the main goals for council was to attract people to the region.

“We want to improve livability, by creating job opportunities, building great infrastructure and having good education facilities so people want to live in Horsham,” he said.

“One of the challenges we have is public transport and Emma Kealy’s announcement last week was a big step in the right direction.

“Looking over larger periods of time, say 10 to 20 years, the population is really static, whereas in the city is growing at an extraordinary rate.

“The best solution to curb Melbourne’s population growth is by getting people to move to the country.

“My family did it 25 years ago and we want more people to do the same.

“We also need to attract more professional such as doctors and dentists to town so that this is a great place to live.”

Ripon MP Louise Staley said the Coalition’s election promise to improve the V/Line commuter schedule for Ararat and fund a study into returning passenger rail to western Victoria would help address declining populations.

“Rail is very much part of our conversation and our thinking about population decentralisation,” she said.

“The numbers from the ABS tell us that we have all of this growth in Melbourne and a lot of places in country Victoria are flat-lining.”

Ms Staley said returning passenger rail to lines through Stawell and St Arnaud would drive population growth out to regional towns and cities.

“Passenger rail is a very important component to driving population growth,” she said.

Labor candidate for Ripon Sarah De Santis said population decline was “a real challenge”.

“One of the key issues that has come through from my discussion with local governments and community groups is the absolute desire to hold on to and grow populations, particularly in the towns to the north,” Ms De Santis said.

“There’s a real understanding that if your population is in decline, your town is at risk of disappearing.

“A lot of these towns struggle to retain people because of a number of factors; employment is an issue and there is also the issue of educational facilities.”

Ms De Santis said the state government was working with local governments on the issue, and pointed to recent multi-million dollar health and education funding announcements for Stawell.

“We’ll continue to work with local governments and community groups to keep improving what we know is a great place to live,” she said.

The data showed the natural increase or decrease in population through births and deaths; the net internal migration, meaning the net gain or loss of population through the movement of people within Australia from one region to another (both interstate and intrastate), and; net overseas migration, meaning the net gain or loss of population through immigration to Australia and emigration from Australia.

Ararat had the highest number of overseas migrants in the Grampians and Wimmera regions.