Melbourne closes in on Sydney’s population growth

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March 31 2021
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Melbourne is hot on the heels of Sydney’s population growth, as it inches closer to taking over as the country’s biggest city since Sydney established itself as the most populous back in the early 1990s.

Melbourne closes in on Sydney population growth

According to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Sydney’s population stood at 5.37 million on 30 June 2020, up 1.1 per cent from a year earlier, and just 207,995 above Melbourne’s 5.16 million figure.

Surprisingly, and despite a growing sea-change/tree-change trend, Melbourne had the largest population increase, growing by more than 80,000 people.

Although Melbourne’s toughest and longest lockdown kicked in after the ABS figures were compiled, the city is well and truly closing in on Sydney, which took over as the country’s biggest city in 1902.

But the latter months of COVID are expected to put Sydney at a slight advantage, as a number of Melburnians are tipped to have packed their bags in protest against the state government in the September quarter.

As for Australia’s other capital cities, it was Brisbane and Perth that saw the highest growth rates in the year to June 2020.

Brisbane's population grew by 1.9 per cent during 2019-20, while Perth added 1.8 per cent.

In fact, only Darwin experienced a decrease in population during 2019-20, with 180 fewer people calling the Northern Territory capital home at 30 June 2020 compared to the previous year.

ERP at 30 June 2020	2019-20 (no.)	2019-20 (%)
Sydney	5,367,206	57,107	1.1
Melbourne	5,159,211	80,088	1.6
Brisbane	2,560,720	46,914	1.9
Adelaide	1,376,601	16,127	1.2
Perth	2,125,114	37,559	1.8
Hobart	238,834	2,610	1.1
Darwin	147,231	-184	-0.1
Canberra	431,380	5,095	1.2
Total capital cities	17,406,297	245,316	1.4

ABS data also reveals the population growth hotspots within the capitals and the rest of the country.

Mickleham - Yuroke in Melbourne’s outer north had the highest growth rate (33 per cent) in Australia in 2019-20, while Riverstone - Marsden Park in Sydney's outer north-west had the largest growth (up by 8,900 people).

State/Territory	Largest growth 2019-20		Highest growth rate 2019-20(a)
State/Territory	Area	Number	Area	Per cent
Victoria	Cranbourne East	6,300	Mickleham - Yuroke	32.8
New South Wales	Riverstone - Marsden Park	8,900	Riverstone - Marsden Park	27.8
Queensland	Pimpama	2,700	Ripley	20.3
Northern Territory	Palmerston - South	830	Palmerston - South	14.6
Australian Capital Territory	Throsby	550	Moncrieff	14.3
Western Australia	Ellenbrook	2,400	Alkimos - Eglinton	10.2
South Australia	Munno Para West - Angle Vale	970	Munno Para West - Angle Vale	6.6
Tasmania	Newnham - Mayfield	290	Rokeby	4.0

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