Victorian mothers delivered a record crop of babies in 2012, combining with a resurgence of overseas migration to lift the state's population growth to almost 100,000 a year, the Bureau of Statistics reports.

The bureau says 77,384 babies issued their first scream in our hospital wards last year - finally breaking the 40-year-old record set at the peak of the baby boom in 1971.

Ana Dojkovski with her one-day-old son Jake at Sunshine Hospital. Credit:Pat Scala

Victoria has more than its share of people in their 20s and 30s, but this is the first time it has led to an outsized birth rate. Last year alone, there were 6326 or 9 per cent more babies born, while the doctors helped defy our ageing and fast-growing population, with total deaths in the state declining by 189 or 0.5 per cent.

Net overseas migration to Victoria also shot up 18 per cent last year to 56,200, the highest tally since 2009. The bureau estimates that 118,400 new residents arrived from overseas, the third highest ever, while 62,200 returned home.