​Deaths are outnumbering births in some of Sydney's wealthiest North Shore neighbourhoods, while poorer parts of the city have experienced a baby boom.

Turramurra, Gordon, Killara, Hunters Hill and Woolwich all had a natural decrease in population between 2006 and 2014, new regional population estimates by the Bureau of Statistics reveal. The Cherrybrook area had the biggest natural population decline in the Sydney basin with 1016 more deaths than births in the nine-year period analysed.

Headstones at Rookwood cemetery. Credit:Rick Stevens

However, this negative population trend in parts of Sydney's north was offset by internal migration – when people move into the area from other parts of the city or nation – meaning suburbs in the region with natural population declines registered a modest increase in the overall population.