Australia's treasurers have begun work on a national framework to manage population growth, in hopes of solving city congestion issues.
Analysing regional areas and better projecting population growth will be among their first ports of call.
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg met with his state and territory counterparts in Canberra on Friday, to continue their discussion on how the nation can best share responsibility for population change.
The group - which announced in December they would establish a population management framework by the end of 2019 - have agreed to immediately create two new working groups.
One will be focused on regional analysis, determining information such as what jobs are available or needed in an area.
The other group will be focused on sharing information about factors such as infrastructure.
Mr Frydenberg is pleased with the "very constructive" result.
"Population demographics are destiny and they have a major impact on how treasurers and governments manage the economy," he said after the meeting.
The treasurer earlier stressed that two-thirds of new immigrants are going to Australia's capital cities, particularly Sydney, Melbourne and in southeast Queensland.
"This is creating pressures on infrastructure, not only on our roads but also on our public transport, creating pressures on health, on education and other essential services," he said.
Dealing with the issue will require a joint effort from the Commonwealth, the states and the territories, he said.
But not everyone has walked away with a rosy view of Friday's meeting, with Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas saying the group had "failed" to reach agreement on a national framework due to disputes on infrastructure funding.
"The minority Morrison government must fairly fund Victorian infrastructure if any progress is to be made," the Labor MP said in a statement.
"If the Commonwealth's infrastructure investment was distributed based on population share, Victoria would receive an additional $4.9 billion extra over the budget and forward estimates period, according to the latest projections."
Australia has the fifth-fastest rate of population growth in the OECD and hit the 25-million mark two decades earlier than expected.
The nation's permanent migration number is capped at 190,000 people each year but has only reached about 160,000 over the past few years.
The federal treasurer was coy on whether he thinks the migration cap should be lowered.
The next cap will be revealed in the budget on April 2.
