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An updated (pandemic edition) of this blog has been published. See the 2022 table of Australia’s largest cities here.
In this update of our ever-popular blog series, Glenn looks largest urban centres in Australia based on the latest population estimates to June 2020. Everyone loves a ranking and here you can see the how Australia’s main urban areas stack up. The big news: Melbourne has overtaken Sydney!
Every year we get an update on local populations, which goes onto our Community Profile (profile.id) sites. Total population is the simplest demographic characteristic but also the most eagerly awaited. As part of this update, the ABS defines “Significant Urban Areas”, which allow us to re-rank Australia’s cities.
While Australia’s population growth slowed down in 2019-20, it didn’t stop. It probably will stop in 2021 – we have preliminary estimates at a national level which show negative growth for the September quarter 2020 – but much of 2019-20 was pre-COVID and the borders were still open.
5 year change | 1 year change | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Significant Urban Area | 2020 pop | no | % | no. | % |
1 | Melbourne VIC | 4,969,305 | 545,542 | 12.3% | 74,522 | 1.5% |
2 | Sydney NSW | 4,966,806 | 419,479 | 9.2% | 54,475 | 1.1% |
3 | Brisbane Qld | 2,475,680 | 235,474 | 10.5% | 45,873 | 1.9% |
4 | Perth WA | 2,083,645 | 119,247 | 6.1% | 36,597 | 1.8% |
5 | Adelaide SA | 1,357,504 | 62,523 | 4.8% | 15,997 | 1.2% |
6 | Gold Coast – Tweed Heads Qld/NSW | 709,495 | 78,675 | 12.5% | 15,917 | 2.3% |
7 | Newcastle – Maitland NSW | 498,015 | 26,532 | 5.6% | 6,613 | 1.3% |
8 | Canberra – Queanbeyan ACT/NSW | 464,995 | 32,256 | 7.5% | 3,285 | 0.7% |
9 | Sunshine Coast Qld | 348,343 | 38,721 | 12.5% | 7,318 | 2.1% |
10 | Central Coast NSW | 337,284 | 12,188 | 3.7% | 1,860 | 0.6% |
11 | Wollongong NSW | 309,345 | 17,658 | 6.1% | 3,356 | 1.1% |
12 | Geelong Vic | 282,412 | 35,246 | 14.3% | 6,608 | 2.4% |
13 | Hobart Tas | 219,071 | 13,900 | 6.8% | 2,301 | 1.1% |
14 | Townsville Qld | 183,322 | 6,416 | 3.6% | 1,663 | 0.9% |
15 | Cairns Qld | 155,340 | 7,737 | 5.2% | 1,402 | 0.9% |
16 | Toowoomba Qld | 139,526 | 6,994 | 5.3% | 1,314 | 1.0% |
17 | Darwin NT | 133,268 | 2,171 | 1.7% | -220 | -0.2% |
18 | Ballarat Vic | 109,533 | 9,871 | 9.9% | 1,881 | 1.7% |
19 | Bendigo Vic | 102,499 | 8,464 | 9.0% | 1,509 | 1.5% |
20 | Albury – Wodonga NSW/Vic | 96,075 | 6,769 | 7.6% | 1,248 | 1.3% |
21 | Launceston Tas | 89,178 | 3,621 | 4.2% | 971 | 1.1% |
22 | Mackay Qld | 80,926 | – 184 | -0.2% | 664 | 0.8% |
23 | Rockhampton Qld | 79,602 | 493 | 0.6% | 524 | 0.7% |
24 | Melton Vic | 75,517 | 16,485 | 27.9% | 3,325 | 4.6% |
25 | Bunbury WA | 75,155 | 1,679 | 2.3% | 539 | 0.7% |
26 | Coffs Harbour NSW | 73,018 | 3,779 | 5.5% | 489 | 0.7% |
27 | Bundaberg Qld | 71,554 | 1,398 | 2.0% | 254 | 0.4% |
28 | Wagga Wagga NSW | 56,887 | 1,528 | 2.8% | 221 | 0.4% |
29 | Hervey Bay Qld | 55,975 | 3,546 | 6.8% | 642 | 1.2% |
30 | Shepparton – Mooroopna Vic | 52,529 | 2,368 | 4.7% | 424 | 0.8% |
31 | Mildura – Wentworth Vic/NSW | 52,319 | 1,739 | 3.4% | 141 | 0.3% |
32 | Port Macquarie NSW | 49,478 | 3,680 | 8.0% | 760 | 1.6% |
33 | Gladstone – Tannum Sands Qld | 45,938 | 306 | 0.7% | 306 | 0.7% |
34 | Tamworth NSW | 43,251 | 1,669 | 4.0% | 71 | 0.2% |
35 | Traralgon – Morwell Vic | 42,440 | 1,315 | 3.2% | 196 | 0.5% |
36 | Bowral – Mittagong NSW | 40,964 | 3,037 | 8.0% | 560 | 1.4% |
37 | Orange NSW | 40,888 | 1,666 | 4.2% | 91 | 0.2% |
38 | Warragul – Drouin Vic | 40,645 | 6,392 | 18.7% | 1,429 | 3.6% |
39 | Busselton WA | 40,326 | 3,460 | 9.4% | 700 | 1.8% |
40 | Dubbo NSW | 39,054 | 2,339 | 6.4% | 293 | 0.8% |
41 | Nowra – Bomaderry NSW | 38,314 | 2,114 | 5.8% | 482 | 1.3% |
42 | Bathurst NSW | 37,545 | 2,171 | 6.1% | 359 | 1.0% |
43 | Geraldton WA | 37,256 | – 1,449 | -3.7% | -7 | 0.0% |
44 | Warrnambool Vic | 35,887 | 1,520 | 4.4% | 365 | 1.0% |
45 | Albany WA | 34,587 | 820 | 2.4% | 212 | 0.6% |
46 | Devonport Tas | 30,877 | 1,002 | 3.4% | 248 | 0.8% |
47 | Mount Gambier SA | 29,946 | 541 | 1.8% | 180 | 0.6% |
48 | Kalgoorlie – Boulder WA | 28,911 | – 2,608 | -8.3% | -431 | -1.5% |
49 | Lismore NSW | 28,495 | – 616 | -2.1% | -76 | -0.3% |
50 | Nelson Bay NSW | 28,490 | 1,353 | 5.0% | 217 | 0.8% |
Melbourne has overtaken Sydney to become Australia’s largest city!
The big proviso is that, as always, this list is based on “Significant Urban Areas”. These areas are based on an aggregate of SA2s, which contain the continuous urban extent of a city without major gaps. This differs from “Greater Capital Cities”, which are used as benchmarks in most of the .id sites and at the ABS. Greater Capital Cities are defined as broader labour market regions and extend further into rural districts within commuting distance of the capitals.
These populations are shown here for interest – everyone loves a good league table! Populations for Local Government Areas, suburbs, districts and other small areas have now been updated on Community Profile for all our Local Government and regional clients. You can also see the updated LGA populations on our National Demographic Indicators series page.
Our specialists have deep expertise in demographics and spatial analysis, urban economics, housing research, social research and population forecasting
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