South Australia will lobby for bigger population growth when the nation's premiers and Prime Minister Scott Morrison meet in Adelaide this week.
Premier Steven Marshall says he's keen to advance the state's desire to attract more international students and skilled migrants and to retain more school leavers and university graduates.
"We've made it very clear we want to see a larger share of the nation's population growth," Mr Marshall told reporters on Tuesday.
Mr Morrison's first meeting with premiers on Wednesday since becoming prime minister will revolve around population policy.
The PM has a "population framework" in mind but has asked each of the states and territories to come up with areas they want new migrants to go.
Mr Marshall said the SA government was concerned that the state's population growth was lagging at below half the national rate, something that will result in the loss of a seat and the loss of influence, at the next federal election.
"We want to keep more of our young people in this state. That will have a massive effect on growing our population," the premier said.
"We want more international students in South Australia.
"We also want some targeted skilled migration in regional South Australia to deal with some of the skill shortages that are emerging in those communities."
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