A town in north-eastern NSW has been left reeling after new figures claimed they had experienced a huge drop in their population.

New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistic show rural and remote parts of Australia have shed up to a third of their population over the last six years.

It also claims the largest single drop in a major population centre in the last ten years was 10.5 per cent in the north-eastern NSW town of Gunnedah.

Mayor of Gunnedah Jamie Chaffey tells Steve Price the figures simply aren’t true.

“If I wasn’t so upset about it I probably would be laughing about it.”

He says the population of Gunnedah has actually grown over the last ten years.

“It’s factually incorrect, this report, and I’m sure they’ve got us confused with some other regional community in NSW.

“We’re one of the few communities that are bucking the trend and we’ve seen growth year on year for the last ten years.”

Steve even promises to broadcast his show from Gunnedah before the end of the year.

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