Businesses might shut their doors, but if a town is growing it’s often down to its success in being able to create new job opportunities.

An increasing population puts pressure on essential services such as health and schools, but it can also deliver the type of demand that feeds so many industries – more work for builders, more sales for grocery and other retail outlets.

In other words, growth on its own can be great provided a community can anticipate it and make the appropriate short-, medium- and long-term planning.

Grow too quickly though and it’s hard, sometimes almost impossible, to keep up with this change.

There can be no more telling example of that than in the growth corridors of our capital cities.

Sydney has been at bursting point for years, while Melbourne’s even faster-growing population is creating its own set of problems.

Melbourne has the space to move, though there has been the contentious issue for many years of changes in government policy regarding the city’s green belt.

Travel through outer suburbs such as Werribee covered by Wyndham Council or across the vast stretches of cheek-by-jowl new housing in Melbourne’s south-east and you easily get a picture of the challenges.

Put simply, these areas are growing so quickly that the planning is often lagging well behind – insufficient schools, public transport and heavy congestion on local roads.

And then there is a different sort of growth like that in Albury and Wodonga –  prosperous cities with a tremendous economic diversity.

Throw in an enviable lifestyle, beautiful countryside and a diverse food, retail and arts culture and it’s no wonder the region is often considered a well-kept secret.

What makes Albury-Wodonga’s growth so ideal though is its measured pace.

As the latest census results show, we are getting bigger – Albury’s population up 6.8 per cent and Wodonga by 10.8 per cent.

But it’s happening in a way that doesn’t take the gloss off our quality of life.

Albury mayor Kevin Mack was spot on when he summed it up this week.

“Our income growth compared to housing costs shows the region remains a great place to live, work and invest.”