The 50 largest cities and towns in Australia

Australia’s population has grown 1.4% in the past year, and 7.9% in 5 years and now over 24 million people are living in Australia.

But where do they live and how have our cities grown?

The latest release from those smart demographers at iD The Population Experts dissects the ABS Regional Population Growth figures and they have listed the top 50 cities and towns.

Combined these 50 centres have a population of 19,411,452, or 82% of Australia’s population.

So less than 1 in 5 people lives outside these and 47% live in just the top two – Sydney and Melbourne.

It’s also worth mentioning that based on the numbers, Melbourne will overtake Sydney in only about 8 years – but this version of Sydney excludes the Central Coast, nominally a part of Greater Sydney.

Significant urban area	Population June 2015	5 year growth	5 year % growth	1 year growth	1 year % growth
Sydney	4,526,479	343,008	8.2%	77,565	1.7%
Melbourne	4,353,514	399,575	10.1%	86,796	2.0%
Brisbane	2,209,453	190,379	9.4%	33,702	1.5%
Perth	1,958,912	235,694	13.7%	26,163	1.4%
Adelaide	1,288,681	63,013	5.1%	11,970	0.9%
Gold Coast – Tweed Heads	624,918	53,518	9.4%	10,798	1.8%
Newcastle – Maitland	434,454	23,938	5.8%	3,964	0.9%
Canberra – Queanbeyan	424,666	26,236	6.6%	2,825	0.7%
Central Coast	325,082	12,492	4.0%	2,202	0.7%
Sunshine Coast	302,122	24,918	9.0%	4,864	1.6%
Wollongong	292,388	13,058	4.7%	3,333	1.2%
Hobart	209,254	5,808	2.9%	1,594	0.8%
Geelong	187,417	12,206	7.0%	3,236	1.8%
Townsville	180,333	16,263	9.9%	1,755	1.0%
Cairns	147,993	10,842	7.9%	1,359	0.9%
Darwin	123,396	10,409	9.2%	1,974	1.6%
Toowoomba	114,622	5,926	5.5%	1,044	0.9%
Ballarat	99,841	8,206	9.0%	1,332	1.4%
Bendigo	92,888	6,910	8.0%	1,122	1.2%
Albury – Wodonga	88,949	5,704	6.9%	1,153	1.3%
Launceston	86,633	1,049	1.2%	263	0.3%
Mackay	85,455	7,425	9.5%	448	0.5%
Rockhampton	80,665	5,670	7.6%	353	0.4%
Bunbury	75,628	9,593	14.5%	1,563	2.1%
Bundaberg	70,588	1,879	2.7%	76	0.1%
Coffs Harbour	68,572	2,569	3.9%	561	0.8%
Melton	59,500	13,040	28.1%	2,623	4.6%
Wagga Wagga	55,820	1,929	3.6%	489	0.9%
Hervey Bay	52,288	3,043	6.2%	466	0.9%
Mildura – Wentworth	50,011	1,792	3.7%	194	0.4%
Shepparton – Mooroopna	49,371	2,303	4.9%	309	0.6%
Gladstone – Tannum Sands	49,248	7,226	17.2%	1,232	2.6%
Port Macquarie	45,341	2,629	6.2%	493	1.1%
Tamworth	42,255	2,626	6.6%	471	1.1%
Traralgon – Morwell	40,816	765	1.9%	19	0.0%
Orange	40,075	3,087	8.3%	334	0.8%
Geraldton	39,825	3,490	9.6%	246	0.6%
Bowral – Mittagong	37,897	1,901	5.3%	425	1.1%
Dubbo	36,941	1,885	5.4%	342	0.9%
Busselton	36,285	5,674	18.5%	997	2.8%
Bathurst	36,013	2,685	8.1%	644	1.8%
Nowra – Bomaderry	35,920	1,842	5.4%	559	1.6%
Warrnambool	33,979	1,288	3.9%	133	0.4%
Albany	33,970	2,491	7.9%	356	1.1%
Warragul – Drouin	33,386	4,155	14.2%	700	2.1%
Kalgoorlie – Boulder	32,797	1,307	4.2%	-139	-0.4%
Devonport	30,497	263	0.9%	42	0.1%
Lismore	29,413	205	0.7%	43	0.1%
Mount Gambier	28,929	737	2.6%	114	0.4%
Alice Springs	27,972	– 425	-1.5%	-291	-1.0%

Source: .id is a team of population experts, who have some great demographic resources at their site.

About Kate Forbes

Kate Forbes is a National Director Property Strategy at Metropole. She has 15 years of investment experience in financial markets in two continents, is qualified in multiple disciplines and is also a chartered financial analyst (CFA).
Visit www.MelbourneBuyersAgent.com.au