Australia’s 50 largest cities

Key takeaways

Sydney regained the top spot as Australia’s largest city for 2021, but Melbourne is close on its heels.

In fact there are just 57,000 people separating Sydney from Melbourne – 4.959 million compared to 4.901 million – according to the latest ABS data.

While the country’s population temporarily stalled we can expect Australia’s population to begin rising strongly again.

Sydney regained the top spot as Australia’s largest city for 2021, but Melbourne is close on its heels.

In fact, there are just 57,000 people separating Sydney from Melbourne – 4.959 million compared to 4.901 million – according to the latest ABS data.

Last year it was Melbourne which wore the crown for the highest population, but thanks to the Covid-19 lockdowns which saw the city’s population dip (of a huge 65,000 people over the year), Sydney once again has stepped to the top of the annual list of urban area populations put together by id.com.au demographers using ABS data.

And that’s not the only change.

Covid-19 border closures, lockdowns, and associated population movements have shifted things around throughout the whole of the country.

The data shows that our largest cities and established urban areas have declined (particularly Sydney and Melbourne with a population fall of 0.1% and 1.3% year-on-year respectively) while places, where people look for lifestyle change within 2 hours drive of the capitals, have tended to boom.

This is unsurprising given we already know that seachange and tree change markets have seen immense price growth over 2021, as the prevalence of remote work amid the pandemic, the relative affordability of regions and the potential for retirement decisions being brought amid labour market disruptions contributed to elevated levels of migration to regional Australia through 2021.

Plenty of areas have grown or shrunk in population but surprisingly, the majority have maintained their position on the list.

In fact, 42 out of the 50 places are unchanged from 2020.

The data shows that 12 of the top 50 urban centres recorded a population drop in 2021.

The total for the top 50 was an increase of 9,702 people – just 0.05%, although this was mainly due to Melbourne’s large 65,000 population fall.

Areas that have climbed the list represent ‘flee change’ locations around 100km or so from our capital.

For example, Warragul-Drouin in Victoria rose two places to position 36, Nelson Bay NSW is up to position 48  and (just off the list) Victor Harbor – Goolwa in SA rises 2 places to number 51.

Here’s the full list:

Rank	Significant urban area	2021 population	5-year change No.	5-year change %	1-year change No.	1-year change %	Change in rank (1 yr)
1	Sydney NSW	4,959,107	321,671	6.90%	-7,103	-0.10%	1
2	Melbourne Vic	4,901,863	355,270	7.80%	-65,115	-1.30%	-1
3	Brisbane Qld	2,495,825	213,066	9.30%	20,724	0.80%	0
4	Perth WA	2,099,530	117,260	5.90%	15,339	0.70%	0
5	Adelaide SA	1,359,087	53,561	4.10%	1,664	0.10%	0
6	Gold Coast – Tweed Heads Qld-NSW	718,772	73,061	11.30%	9,402	1.30%	0
7	Newcastle – Maitland NSW	505,489	29,773	6.30%	7,471	1.50%	0
8	Canberra – Queanbeyan ACT-NSW	462,984	23,013	5.20%	-1,841	-0.40%	0
9	Sunshine Coast Qld	353,906	37,001	11.70%	5,601	1.60%	0
10	Central Coast NSW	338,567	10,237	3.10%	1,275	0.40%	0
11	Wollongong NSW	312,167	17,383	5.90%	2,823	0.90%	0
12	Geelong Vic	287,704	33,408	13.10%	5,385	1.90%	0
13	Hobart Tas	218,386	10,990	5.30%	-568	-0.30%	0
14	Townsville Qld	184,271	6,027	3.40%	978	0.50%	0
15	Cairns Qld	155,529	6,347	4.30%	224	0.10%	0
16	Toowoomba Qld	140,303	6,649	5.00%	797	0.60%	0
17	Darwin NT	132,921	-177	-0.10%	-424	-0.30%	0
18	Ballarat Vic	111,348	9,670	9.50%	1,851	1.70%	0
19	Bendigo Vic	103,575	7,641	8.00%	1,112	1.10%	0
20	Albury – Wodonga NSW-Vic	97,274	6,438	7.10%	1,215	1.30%	0
21	Launceston Tas	88,884	3,152	3.70%	-249	-0.30%	0
22	Mackay Qld	81,262	851	1.10%	351	0.40%	0
23	Rockhampton Qld	79,967	1,369	1.70%	374	0.50%	0
24	Melton Vic	77,392	15,432	24.90%	1,923	2.50%	0
25	Bunbury WA	75,440	1,762	2.40%	271	0.40%	0
26	Coffs Harbour NSW	73,443	3,337	4.80%	424	0.60%	0
27	Bundaberg Qld	71,796	1,617	2.30%	248	0.30%	0
28	Wagga Wagga NSW	57,004	1,204	2.20%	121	0.20%	0
29	Hervey Bay Qld	56,599	3,583	6.80%	623	1.10%	0
30	Shepparton – Mooroopna Vic	52,273	1,565	3.10%	-233	-0.40%	0
31	Mildura – Wentworth Vic-NSW	51,794	743	1.50%	-507	-1.00%	0
32	Port Macquarie Vic	50,365	3,989	8.60%	882	1.80%	0
33	Gladstone – Tannum Sands Qld	45,987	1,033	2.30%	58	0.10%	0
34	Tamworth NSW	43,330	1,344	3.20%	81	0.20%	0
35	Traralgon – Morwell Vic	42,567	1,182	2.90%	139	0.30%	0
36	Warragul – Drouin Vic	42,115	6,592	18.60%	1,484	3.70%	2
37	Bowral – Mittagong NSW	41,454	2,801	7.20%	488	1.20%	-1
38	Orange NSW	41,162	1,576	4.00%	274	0.70%	-1
39	Busselton WA	41,034	3,344	8.90%	700	1.70%	0
40	Dubbo NSW	39,363	2,245	6.00%	311	0.80%	0
41	Nowra – Bomaderry NSW	38,947	2,157	5.90%	631	1.60%	0
42	Bathurst NSW	38,087	2,209	6.20%	543	1.40%	0
43	Geraldton WA	37,228	-1,141	-3.00%	-35	-0.10%	0
44	Warrnambool Vic	35,957	1,342	3.90%	79	0.20%	0
45	Albany WA	34,612	828	2.50%	18	0.10%	0
46	Devonport Tas	30,883	983	3.30%	18	0.10%	0
47	Mount Gambier SA	29,940	408	1.40%	-3	0.00%	0
48	Nelson Bay NSW	28,752	1,293	4.70%	259	0.90%	2
49	Kalgoorlie – Boulder WA	28,565	-2,087	-6.80%	-354	-1.20%	-1
50	Lismore NSW	28,469	-547	-1.90%	-27	-0.10%	-1

Source: Id.com.au using ABS data

Australia is still an urbanised country

Id.com.au’s list of the top 50 urban areas in Australia contains 21,423,279 people in 2021 – which is 83.2% of the country’s total.

The top 100 urban areas make up 86.9%.

Of course, the top 5 alone – the only cities with over 1 million – make up 61%, which shows that Australia is still a very urbanised country.

The data also shows that more than two-thirds of Australia’s population growth occurred in the “Not in a significant urban area” category.

This makes up only 13.1% of Australia’s population, but increased by almost 31,000 people for the year, representing a 0.9% increase, the demographers found.

This is by far the largest growth in this category since records began in the 1980s.

These include all rural areas outside of major centres, as well as smaller towns of less than 10,000 population (and not near the outskirts of a larger urban area).

Australia’s population is expected to surge

While the country’s population temporarily stalled or even fell, during the Covid-19 pandemic, now our borders have reopened and migration has resumed, we can expect Australia’s population to begin rising strongly again.

Australia’s population is projected to reach between 37.4 and 49.2 million people by 2066 and then grow to over 50 million people by 2101.

About Brett Warren
Brett Warren is Director of Metropole Properties Brisbane and uses his two decades of property investment experience to advise clients how to grow, protect and pass on their build their wealth through property. Visit: Metropole Brisbane