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**This blog has been updated: Read the 2018 version of Top 50 largest cities and towns in Australia by population here.
A couple of years ago, I did a blog post about Australia’s top 33 cities by population. This was a very popular blog which was a ranking of the biggest cities in Australia and so I’ve updated it here (and expanded it to the top 50 largest Australian cities) with the latest population figures from the ABS as at 2013. For more up to date population and population forecasts for NSW, read our blog on the Top 20 fastest growing suburbs in NSW. Watch this space for other states.
So, without further ado, on to the list!
This is based on the top 50 Significant Urban Areas in Australia at June 2013 Estimated Resident Population, and 5 year growth 2008-2013.
Rank | Significant Urban Area | State | 2013 | 5 year growth | 5 year % growth |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sydney | NSW | 4,373,433 | 326,568 | 8.1% |
2 | Melbourne | Vic | 4,181,021 | 392,675 | 10.4% |
3 | Brisbane | Qld | 2,143,121 | 215,082 | 11.2% |
4 | Perth | WA | 1,901,582 | 269,825 | 16.5% |
5 | Adelaide | SA | 1,263,888 | 71,195 | 6.0% |
6 | Gold Coast – Tweed Heads | Qld/NSW | 605,134 | 60,773 | 11.2% |
7 | Newcastle – Maitland | NSW | 425,895 | 24,459 | 6.1% |
8 | Canberra – Queanbeyan | ACT/NSW | 418,856 | 34,934 | 9.1% |
9 | Central Coast | NSW | 320,266 | 15,643 | 5.1% |
10 | Sunshine Coast | Qld | 292,354 | 26,732 | 10.1% |
11 | Wollongong | NSW | 286,581 | 14,292 | 5.2% |
12 | Hobart | Tas | 206,560 | 8,278 | 4.2% |
13 | Geelong | Vic | 181,853 | 11,117 | 6.5% |
14 | Townsville | Qld | 176,035 | 19,689 | 12.6% |
15 | Cairns | Qld | 145,003 | 14,806 | 11.4% |
16 | Darwin | NT | 119,597 | 11,900 | 11.0% |
17 | Toowoomba | Qld | 112,588 | 6,029 | 5.7% |
18 | Ballarat | Vic | 96,940 | 9,047 | 10.3% |
19 | Bendigo | Vic | 90,280 | 6,967 | 8.4% |
20 | Albury – Wodonga | NSW/Vic | 86,274 | 4,734 | 5.8% |
21 | Launceston | Tas | 86,188 | 2,139 | 2.5% |
22 | Mackay | Qld | 83,924 | 9,234 | 12.4% |
23 | Rockhampton | Qld | 79,298 | 6,208 | 8.5% |
24 | Bunbury | WA | 72,464 | 10,779 | 17.5% |
25 | Bundaberg | Qld | 70,359 | 3,513 | 5.3% |
26 | Coffs Harbour | NSW | 67,519 | 3,301 | 5.1% |
27 | Wagga Wagga | NSW | 54,679 | 1,788 | 3.4% |
28 | Melton | Vic | 54,483 | 13,093 | 31.6% |
29 | Hervey Bay | Qld | 51,168 | 4,632 | 10.0% |
30 | Mildura – Wentworth | Vic/NSW | 49,441 | 1,845 | 3.9% |
31 | Shepparton – Mooroopna | Vic | 48,637 | 3,333 | 7.4% |
32 | Gladstone – Tannum Sands | Qld | 46,377 | 5,599 | 13.7% |
33 | Port Macquarie | NSW | 44,180 | 2,684 | 6.5% |
34 | Tamworth | NSW | 41,304 | 2,641 | 6.8% |
35 | Traralgon – Morwell | Vic | 40,910 | 1,969 | 5.1% |
36 | Orange | NSW | 39,226 | 3,367 | 9.4% |
37 | Geraldton | WA | 38,931 | 3,859 | 11.0% |
38 | Bowral – Mittagong | NSW | 36,994 | 1,855 | 5.3% |
39 | Ellenbrook | WA | 36,207 | 12,778 | 54.5% |
40 | Dubbo | NSW | 36,089 | 1,870 | 5.5% |
41 | Nowra – Bomaderry | NSW | 34,885 | 2,061 | 6.3% |
42 | Bathurst | NSW | 34,870 | 2,856 | 8.9% |
43 | Busselton | WA | 34,241 | 5,921 | 20.9% |
44 | Warrnambool | Vic | 33,625 | 1,615 | 5.0% |
45 | Kalgoorlie – Boulder | WA | 33,484 | 2,796 | 9.1% |
46 | Albany | WA | 33,113 | 2,373 | 7.7% |
47 | Warragul – Drouin | Vic | 31,935 | 4,718 | 17.3% |
48 | Devonport | Tas | 30,431 | 847 | 2.9% |
49 | Lismore | NSW | 29,537 | 558 | 1.9% |
50 | Alice Springs | NT | 28,720 | 1,254 | 4.6% |
Please note that the geographic classification of urban centres has changed since we wrote our previous blog Australia’s top 33 cities by population. Consequently the tables are not directly comparable (see more detail about geography changes below).
You might like to download our e-book Predicting the Growth Suburbs of the Future to look at where we see population growth occurring in the future.
And our National Demographic Indicators website has the population and other demographic measures for every Local Government Area in Australia.
Populations are more malleable than people think, and really depend on where you draw the boundaries. For example Central Coast is no longer included as part of Sydney but has its own identity in this list. This means that Sydney’s population appears substantially lower than in the previous list, which used the Greater area and had no listing for Central Coast.
The ABS have come up with new boundaries, called “Significant Urban Areas”, so this article has used these, and ranks the centres by these new boundaries.
According to the ABS, Significant Urban Areas “represent concentrations of urban development with a population of 10,000 or more using whole Statistical Areas Level 2 (SA2s). They do not necessarily represent a single Urban Centre, as they can represent a cluster of related Urban Centres with a core urban population over 10,000. They can also include related peri-urban and satellite development and the area into which the urban development is likely to expand.”
What this means is that they represent cities and towns as most people understand them, but in some cases, areas may be subsumed within a larger Significant Urban Area (eg. a contiguous suburb of a major city would generally be included as part of that city). Large satellite centres which are part of the Greater Capital City area, but geographically separated, are now separately identified in many cases (hence Central Coast being separated from Sydney.
So the important thing to remember is that this represents a particular way of drawing boundaries to rank areas but it may not be the only one. If your area isn’t listed, it’s likely included as part of another major centre, due to geographic proximity.
Access the Australian Community Profile to find Census results for each Capital City, State, and Australia on topics including population, age, country of birth, languages spoken, occupations, industries, employment, disability, income, qualifications, transport and much more…
Our specialists have deep expertise in demographics and spatial analysis, urban economics, housing research, social research and population forecasting
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