List of cities in Australia by population

These lists of Australian cities by population provide rankings of Australian cities and towns according to various systems defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The eight Greater Capital City Statistical Areas (GCCSAs) are listed for the state and territorial capital cities. All Significant Urban Areas (SUAs) over 10,000 people are listed next followed by the 50 largest urban centres by population. Lastly, the 50 largest local government areas (the third tier of government below the federal and state/territorial governments) are also ranked.

Definitions

Illustrated are the various statistical areas defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics for Sydney and its surrounds. The extent of the Greater Sydney Greater Capital City Statistical Area is designated by thick grey line and black text. The greater capital city statistical areas are the eight unique statistical divisions delineating the broadest possible concept of each state or territory capital city, constructed from one or more whole labour market areas (designated SA4 in the Australian Statistical Geography Standard). The rest of NSW area includes the entire remainder of the state, as each state or territory has only one GCCSA.

The Significant Urban Areas are designated by solid orange lines with stippled fill and red text. Significant urban areas are statistical divisions designed to represent significant towns and cities or associated collections of smaller towns, with total populations of 10,000 people or more. They consist of single, or clusters of, urban centres/localities (see below), and are constructed from one or more SA2 units, which are collations of suburbs and localities designed for consistent statistical output between censuses.

The urban centres/localities are designated by dashed red lines with pink fill. Urban centres/localities are statistical divisions delineating the contiguous built up, or urban areas of cities, towns and most small settlements. They are constructed from the smallest statistical output areas (SA1). Urban areas are not listed here as their population is only updated every five years during the Census and therefore not as current as the other data published on this page.

Also represented are 31 outlined coloured areas. These are the 31 local government areas that are commonly understood as comprising Sydney, albeit unofficially.

Greater Capital City Statistical Areas by population

Each capital city forms its own Greater Capital City Statistical Area (GCCSA), which according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) represents a broad functional definition of each of the eight state and territorial capital cities. In Australia, the population of the GCCSA is the most-often quoted figure for the population of capital cities. These units correspond broadly to the international concept of metropolitan areas.

Rank	Greater Capital City Statistical Area	State or territory	Estimated resident population		Ten-year growth rate	Included SUA(s)
Rank	Greater Capital City Statistical Area	State or territory	June 2024	June 2014	Ten-year growth rate	Included SUA(s)
1	Greater Sydney	New South Wales	5,557,233	4,841,349	+14.79%	Sydney Central Coast
2	Greater Melbourne	Victoria	5,350,705	4,476,030	+19.54%	Melbourne Bacchus Marsh Gisborne
3	Greater Brisbane	Queensland	2,780,063	2,281,740	+21.84%	Brisbane
4	Greater Perth	Western Australia	2,384,371	1,973,923	+20.79%	Perth
5	Greater Adelaide	South Australia	1,469,163	1,302,079	+12.83%	Adelaide
6	Australian Capital Territory	Australian Capital Territory	473,855	388,799	+21.88%	Canberra–Queanbeyan (ACT part only)
7	Greater Hobart	Tasmania	254,930	221,365	+15.16%	Hobart
8	Greater Darwin	Northern Territory	152,489	141,169	+8.02%	Darwin

Greater Capital City Statistical Areas by population density

Rank	Greater Capital City Statistical Area	State or territory	Density (/km²)	Population (2023)	Land area (km²)
1	Australian Capital Territory	Australian Capital Territory	573	466,566	814.2^{[citation needed]}
2	Greater Melbourne	Victoria	521.08	5,207,145	9,993
3	Greater Adelaide	South Australia	443.7	1,446,380	3,259.8
4	Greater Sydney	New South Wales	440.7	5,450,496	12,367.7
5	Greater Perth	Western Australia	359.8	2,309,338	6,417.9
6	Greater Brisbane	Queensland	170.9	2,706,966	15,842
7	Greater Hobart	Tasmania	144.2	253,654	1,758.8
8	Greater Darwin	Northern Territory	47.6	150,736	3,163.8

Significant Urban Areas by population

The following table ranks all the Significant Urban Areas (SUAs) with a population greater than 10,000 people in 2024, including those of the capital cities (which are smaller than their respective GCCSAs, except for Canberra's, which includes adjacent Queanbeyan, in New South Wales). Capitals are in bold. Significant Urban Areas are defined to represent significant towns and cities, or agglomerations of smaller towns, that have at least 10,000 total population. Significant Urban Areas may contain more than one distinct urban centre. There are urban areas of greater than 10,000 people that the ABS does not currently classify as Significant Urban Areas.

70% of the Australian population live in the top eight most populous cities.

Rank	Significant Urban Area	State or territory	Estimated resident population		Ten-year growth rate
Rank	Significant Urban Area	State or territory	June 2024	June 2014	Ten-year growth rate
1	Melbourne	Victoria	5,245,182	4,388,223	+19.53%
2	Sydney	New South Wales	5,143,256	4,462,430	+15.26%
3	Brisbane	Queensland	2,693,649	2,208,619	+21.96%
4	Perth	Western Australia	2,363,562	1,956,188	+20.82%
5	Adelaide	South Australia	1,449,366	1,283,724	+12.90%
6	Gold Coast–Tweed Heads	Queensland New South Wales	750,997	615,373	+22.04%
7	Newcastle–Maitland	New South Wales	534,033	467,451	+14.24%
8	Canberra–Queanbeyan	Australian Capital Territory New South Wales	510,641	425,909	+19.89%
9	Sunshine Coast	Queensland	417,982	326,780	+27.91%
10	Central Coast	New South Wales	351,237	327,056	+7.39%
11	Wollongong	New South Wales	318,258	288,848	+10.18%
12	Geelong	Victoria	308,915	241,426	+27.95%
13	Hobart	Tasmania	233,592	203,192	+14.96%
14	Townsville	Queensland	189,356	175,762	+7.73%
15	Cairns	Queensland	163,214	146,329	+11.54%
16	Toowoomba	Queensland	152,087	131,367	+15.77%
17	Darwin	Northern Territory	138,567	127,724	+8.49%
18	Ballarat	Victoria	119,284	98,125	+21.56%
19	Bendigo	Victoria	106,022	92,457	+14.67%
20	Albury–Wodonga	New South Wales Victoria	101,370	87,982	+15.22%
21	Launceston	Tasmania	93,194	85,523	+8.97%
22	Mackay	Queensland	89,193	81,454	+9.50%
23	Rockhampton	Queensland	82,876	79,096	+4.78%
24	Bunbury	Western Australia	82,626	72,650	+13.73%
25	Bundaberg	Queensland	78,626	70,221	+11.97%
26	Coffs Harbour	New South Wales	76,479	68,580	+11.52%
27	Hervey Bay	Queensland	62,184	51,929	+19.75%
28	Wagga Wagga	New South Wales	57,963	54,977	+5.43%
29	Shepparton–Mooroopna	Victoria	55,212	49,632	+11.24%
30	Mildura–Buronga	Victoria New South Wales	54,510	50,196	+8.59%
31	Port Macquarie	New South Wales	52,661	45,227	+16.44%
32	Gladstone	Queensland	48,021	45,415	+5.74%
33	Ballina	New South Wales	47,844	41,777	+14.52%
34	Warragul-Drouin	Victoria	46,710	33,205	+40.67%
35	Tamworth	New South Wales	45,878	41,272	+11.16%
36	Busselton	Western Australia	44,881	35,845	+25.21%
37	Traralgon-Morwell	Victoria	44,013	40,999	+7.35%
38	Orange	New South Wales	42,977	39,041	+10.08%
39	Bowral-Mittagong	New South Wales	42,278	37,366	+13.15%
40	Dubbo	New South Wales	42,112	36,323	+15.94%
41	Geraldton	Western Australia	41,450	38,792	+6.85%
42	Nowra-Bomaderry	New South Wales	40,056	35,676	+12.28%
43	Bathurst	New South Wales	38,642	34,881	+10.78%
44	Albany	Western Australia	37,571	33,555	+11.97%
45	Warrnambool	Victoria	36,496	34,084	+7.08%
46	Devonport	Tasmania	32,932	29,961	+9.92%
47	Kalgoorlie-Boulder	Western Australia	30,719	32,232	−4.69%
48	Mount Gambier	South Australia	30,663	29,178	+5.09%
49	Morisset-Cooranbong	New South Wales	30,459	23,488	+29.68%
50	Victor Harbor–Goolwa	South Australia	30,324	25,517	+18.84%
51	Alice Springs	Northern Territory	29,693	27,486	+8.03%
52	Nelson Bay	New South Wales	28,834	26,872	+7.30%
53	Burnie-Somerset	Tasmania	28,684	27,340	+4.92%
54	Maryborough	Queensland	28,598	27,162	+5.29%
55	Lismore	New South Wales	27,983	29,229	−4.26%
56	Taree	New South Wales	26,812	26,382	+1.63%
57	Bacchus Marsh	Victoria	26,576	19,632	+35.37%
58	Goulburn	New South Wales	25,304	22,897	+10.51%
59	Armidale	New South Wales	24,386	23,856	+2.22%
60	Gympie	Queensland	24,017	20,903	+14.90%
61	Gisborne	Victoria	23,626	19,913	+18.65%
62	Echuca-Moama	Victoria New South Wales	23,147	20,414	+13.39%
63	Moe-Newborough	Victoria	22,449	21,390	+4.95%
64	Yeppoon	Queensland	22,120	18,076	+22.37%
65	Whyalla	South Australia	21,764	22,624	−3.80%
66	Forster-Tuncurry	New South Wales	21,198	20,503	+3.39%
67	Griffith	New South Wales	20,690	19,309	+7.15%
68	St Georges Basin-Sanctuary Point	New South Wales	20,356	17,940	+13.47%
69	Wangaratta	Victoria	20,069	18,437	+8.85%
70	Grafton	New South Wales	19,720	19,046	+3.54%
71	Murray Bridge	South Australia	19,710	17,754	+11.02%
72	Camden Haven	New South Wales	19,482	16,502	+18.06%
73	Karratha	Western Australia	19,051	17,698	+7.64%
74	Mount Isa	Queensland	18,356	20,844	−11.94%
75	Batemans Bay	New South Wales	17,722	16,332	+8.51%
76	Broken Hill	New South Wales	17,541	18,627	−5.83%
77	Singleton	New South Wales	17,447	16,625	+4.94%
78	Ulladulla	New South Wales	17,435	15,189	+14.79%
79	Port Lincoln	South Australia	17,044	16,057	+6.15%
80	Port Hedland	Western Australia	17,007	14,693	+15.75%
81	Horsham	Victoria	16,956	16,307	+3.98%
82	Medowie	New South Wales	16,615	13,597	+22.20%
83	Airlie Beach-Cannonvale	Queensland	16,280	12,583	+29.38%
84	Broome	Western Australia	16,238	14,639	+10.92%
85	Kempsey	New South Wales	16,232	15,006	+8.17%
86	Warwick	Queensland	16,156	15,484	+4.34%
87	Bairnsdale	Victoria	15,790	14,157	+11.53%
88	Ulverstone	Tasmania	15,409	14,539	+5.98%
89	Sale	Victoria	15,386	14,729	+4.46%
90	Emerald	Queensland	15,182	13,973	+8.65%
91	Port Pirie	South Australia	14,181	14,484	−2.09%
92	Port Augusta	South Australia	14,114	14,184	−0.49%
93	Mudgee	New South Wales	12,796	11,638	+9.95%
94	Colac	Victoria	12,660	12,245	+3.39%
95	Muswellbrook	New South Wales	12,611	12,309	+2.45%
96	Esperance	Western Australia	12,515	12,385	+1.05%
97	Lithgow	New South Wales	12,235	12,976	−5.71%
98	Castlemaine	Victoria	11,538	10,308	+11.93%
99	Byron Bay	New South Wales	11,244	9,852	+14.13%
100	Portland	Victoria	11,178	10,922	+2.34%
101	Kingaroy	Queensland	11,009	10,525	+4.60%
102	Swan Hill	Victoria	10,839	10,959	−1.09%

Map of the 20 largest Significant Urban Areas by population

2. Sydney

1. Melbourne

3. Brisbane

4. Perth

5. Adelaide

6. Gold
Coast

7. Newcastle

8. Canberra

9. Sunshine Coast

10. Central Coast

11. Wollongong

12. Geelong

13. Hobart

14. Townsville

15. Cairns

17. Darwin

16. Toowoomba

18. Ballarat

19. Bendigo

20. Albury–Wodonga

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20 largest Significant Urban Areas (state and territorial capitals bolded) by population

Central business district populations

Below is a table of the post populated central business districts in Australia. Melbourne has the highest population living in its city centre, mainly due to the large proximity of high rise apartment buildings, while the Adelaide CBD is the second most populated city centre in Australia despite being the fifth-most populous in urban area. Inner-city living is becoming increasingly popular throughout Australia, due to a greater access to employment opportunities, services, and transport.

Rank	Capital City Central Business District	State/territory	CBD Population (2021)	Area (km²)	Density (/km²)
1	Melbourne	Victoria	54,941	6.5	8452.5
2	Adelaide	South Australia	18,202	10.5	1733.5
3	Sydney	New South Wales	16,667	2.94	5669.04
4	Perth	Western Australia	13,670	4.6	2971.7
5	Brisbane	Queensland	12,587	2.5	5034.8
6	Darwin	Northern Territory	7,149	1.9	3762.6
7	Canberra	Australian Capital Territory	4,835	1.5	3453.6
8	Hobart	Tasmania	3,390	1.9	1784.2

50 largest urban centres by population

Urban centres are defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as being a population cluster of 1,000 or more people. For statistical purposes, people living in urban centres are classified as urban. The figures below represent the populations of the contiguous built-up areas of each city; with state and territory capitals in bold. These figures are only updated every census, as the ABS does not render population projections for urban centres, and as such can only be as up-to-date as the most recent census year. Unlike significant urban areas, urban centres that cross state boundaries are split into separate parts for each state.

Rank (2021)	Urban centre	Estimated resident population				SUA (if a part of a larger SUA)	Ranking in state or territory, 2021
Rank (2021)	Urban centre	2021 census	2016 census	2011 census	2006 census	SUA (if a part of a larger SUA)	ACT	NSW	NT	Qld	SA	Tas	WA	Vic
1	Sydney	4,698,656	4,321,535	3,908,642	3,641,422			1
2	Melbourne	4,585,537	4,196,198	3,707,530	3,371,888									1
3	Brisbane	2,287,896	2,054,614	1,874,427	1,676,389					1
4	Perth	2,043,762	1,874,578	1,627,576	1,256,035								1
5	Adelaide	1,245,011	1,165,632	1,103,979	1,040,719						1
6	Gold Coast–Tweed Heads (Gold Coast part)	607,665	540,559	478,107		Gold Coast–Tweed Heads				2
7	Canberra–Queanbeyan (Canberra part)	452,670	395,790	355,596		Canberra–Queanbeyan	1
8	Newcastle	348,539	322,278	308,308	288,732	Newcastle–Maitland		2
9	Central Coast	325,255	307,742	297,713	282,726			3
10	Sunshine Coast	284,131	243,377	209,263	184,662					3
11	Wollongong	280,153	261,896	245,942	234,482			4
12	Hobart	197,451	178,009	170,975	128,557							1
13	Geelong	180,239	157,104	143,291	137,220									2
14	Townsville	173,724	168,729	157,748	128,808					4
15	Cairns	153,181	144,730	133,893	98,349					5
16	Darwin	122,207	118,456	103,016	89,905				1
17	Toowoomba	108,398	100,032	96,597	95,265					6
18	Ballarat	105,348	93,759	85,935	78,221									3
19	Bendigo	100,649	92,379	82,794	76,051									4
20	Maitland	89,597	78,015	67,132	61,431	Newcastle–Maitland		5
21	Launceston	80,943	75,329	74,085	71,395							2
22	Mackay	80,455	75,710	74,219	66,874					7
23	Melton	76,346	54,456	45,624	35,490	Melbourne								5
24	Bunbury	75,196	71,090	64,385	54,482								2
25	Gold Coast–Tweed Heads (Tweed Heads part)	63,721	59,776	55,553		Gold Coast–Tweed Heads		6
26	Rockhampton	63,151	61,214	61,724	60,827					8
27	Hervey Bay	57,722	52,073	48,680	41,225					9
28	Albury–Wodonga (Albury part)	53,677	47,974	45,627		Albury–Wodonga		7
29	Bundaberg	52,370	50,148	49,750	46,961					10
30	Coffs Harbour	51,069	48,225	45,580	26,353			8
31	Shepparton–Mooroopna	49,862	46,199	42,741	38,773									6
32	Wagga Wagga	49,686	48,263	46,913	46,735			9
33	Port Macquarie	47,793	44,814	41,491	39,219			10
34	Orange	40,127	37,182	34,992	31,544			11
35	Dubbo	38,783	34,339	32,327	30,574			12
36	Sunbury	38,010	34,425	33,062	29,566	Melbourne								7
37	Albury–Wodonga (Wodonga part)	37,839	35,130	31,605		Albury–Wodonga								8
38	Canberra–Queanbeyan (Queanbeyan part)	37,511	36,248	35,878		Canberra–Queanbeyan		13
39	Bathurst	36,230	33,587	31,294	28,992			14
40	Mildura–Buronga (Mildura part)	35,652	33,444	31,361		Mildura–Wentworth								9
41	Tamworth	35,415	33,885	36,131	33,475			15
42	Gladstone	34,703	33,418	32,073	28,808	Gladstone–Tannum Sands				11
43	Nowra–Bomaderry	33,583	30,853	27,988	27,478			16
44	Warrnambool	32,894	30,709	29,284										10
45	Geraldton	32,717	31,982	31,349	27,420								3
46	Albany	31,128	29,373	26,643	25,196								4
47	Blue Mountains	30,049	29,319	28,769		Sydney		17
48	Kalgoorlie–Boulder	29,068	29,875	30,840	28,242								5
49	Gawler	28,562	26,472	23,957	20,006	Adelaide					2
50	Lismore	27,916	27,569	27,474	27,069			18

Urban areas by population

Main urban areas in Australia, according to the Demographia:

Urban area	Population	Area	Density
Sydney	4,836,000	2,194 km²	2,204 /km²
Melbourne	4,709,000	2,880 km²	1,635 /km²
Brisbane-Gold Coast	3,039,000	2,647 km²	1,148 /km²
Perth	2,101,000	1,720 km²	1,222 /km²
Adelaide	1,271,000	855 km²	1,488 /km²

50 largest local government areas by population

Local government areas (LGAs) are the main units of local government in Australia. They may be termed cities, councils, regions, shires, towns, or other names, and all function similarly. Local government areas cover approx. 90% of the country. Significant sections of New South Wales and South Australia are unincorporated, that is, have no defined local government, along with the ACT and smaller sections of Northern Territory and Victoria. Brisbane is the only state capital city with its respective LGA (City of Brisbane) covering a significant portion of its urban area. In other capital cities, the central LGA covers a much smaller proportion of the total urban area. Most Australian capital cities have suburban local government areas significantly larger in population than the central local government area.

Rank	Local government area	Estimated resident population	Ranking in state, 2024
Rank	Local government area	2024	Qld	NSW	WA	Vic	SA
1	City of Brisbane	1,355,640	1
2	City of Gold Coast	681,389	2
3	City of Moreton Bay	522,494	3
4	City of Blacktown	438,843		1
5	City of Casey	405,415				1
6	City of Logan	392,339	4
7	City of Canterbury-Bankstown	385,242		2
8	Sunshine Coast Region	375,328	5
9	Central Coast Council	354,803		3
10	City of Wyndham	337,009				2
11	City of Greater Geelong	289,565				3
12	City of Parramatta	274,956		4
13	City of Hume	271,709				4
14	Northern Beaches Council	270,772		5
15	City of Ipswich	259,886	6
16	City of Liverpool	254,905		6
17	City of Whittlesea	253,204				5
18	Cumberland Council	252,399		7
19	City of Stirling	249,872			1
20	Sutherland Shire	238,614		8
21	City of Wanneroo	237,628			2
22	City of Sydney	237,278		9
23	City of Penrith	228,661		10
24	City of Wollongong	221,894		11
25	City of Lake Macquarie	221,859		12
26	City of Melton	219,697				6
27	The Hills Shire	215,612		13
28	City of Fairfield	212,210		14
29	City of Monash	209,268				7
30	City of Townsville	204,541	7
31	City of Brimbank	198,152				8
32	Inner West Council	190,939		15
33	City of Melbourne	189,381				9
34	City of Campbelltown	188,303		16
35	City of Merri-bek	186,534				10
36	Bayside Council	185,880		17
37	Toowoomba Region	184,377	8
38	City of Whitehorse	183,462				11
39	City of Onkaparinga	182,821					1
40	City of Swan	179,207			3
41	Cairns Region	178,104	9
42	City of Boroondara	178,008				12
43	City of Newcastle	176,860		18
44	City of Joondalup	173,469			4
45	Shire of Mornington Peninsula	171,450				13
46	Redland City	170,225	10
47	City of Greater Dandenong	167,298				14
48	City of Kingston	166,521				15
49	City of Knox	163,302				16
50	Georges River Council	161,593		19

Notes

The GCCSA for Canberra covers the entire ACT, and is formally titled as such.

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[ACT-3] The GCCSA for Canberra covers the entire ACT, and is formally titled as such.