List of cities in Australia by population facts for kids

Map of major cities in Australia.

This list of Australian cities by population provides rankings of Australian cities according to various systems defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Firstly, they are ranked by Greater Capital City Statistical Area (for capital cities) and Significant Urban Area (for other cities). They are also ranked by Urban Centre and by Local Government Area (known internationally as 'city proper').

Greater Capital City Statistical Areas/Significant Urban 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 socioeconomic definition of each of the eight state and territory capital cities. These correspond to the more common and international usage of metropolitan areas. Significant Urban Areas are similarly defined but include population centres which are not capital cities. In Australia the population of the GCCSA/SUA is the most-often quoted figure for that city's population. The following ranks GCSSAs and SUAs which are not included within the GCCSAs with populations of over 30,000.

Greater Capital City Statistical Areas are in bold, the remainder are Significant Urban Areas.

Rank	GCCSA/SUA	State/Territory	June 2015 population	Percentage of national population
1	Sydney	New South Wales	4,920,970	20.70%
2	Melbourne	Victoria	4,529,496	19.05%
3	Brisbane	Queensland	2,308,720	9.71%
4	Perth	Western Australia	2,039,193	8.58%
5	Adelaide	South Australia	1,316,779	5.54%
6	Gold Coast–Tweed Heads	Queensland/New South Wales	624,918	2.63%
7	Newcastle–Maitland	New South Wales	434,454	1.83%
8	Canberra–Queanbeyan	Australian Capital Territory/New South Wales	424,666	1.79%
*	Australian Capital Territory	Australian Capital Territory	390,706	1.64%
9	Sunshine Coast	Queensland	302,122	1.27%
10	Wollongong	New South Wales	292,388	1.23%
11	Hobart	Tasmania	220,593	0.93%
12	Geelong	Victoria	187,417	0.79%
13	Townsville	Queensland	180,333	0.76%
14	Cairns	Queensland	147,993	0.62%
15	Darwin	Northern Territory	142,258	0.60%
16	Toowoomba	Queensland	114,622	0.48%
17	Ballarat	Victoria	99,841	0.42%
18	Bendigo	Victoria	92,888	0.39%
19	Albury–Wodonga	New South Wales/Victoria	88,949	0.37%
20	Launceston	Tasmania	86,633	0.36%
21	Mackay	Queensland	85,455	0.36%
22	Rockhampton	Queensland	80,665	0.34%
23	Bunbury	Western Australia	75,628	0.32%
24	Bundaberg	Queensland	70,588	0.30%
25	Coffs Harbour	New South Wales	68,572	0.29%
26	Wagga Wagga	New South Wales	55,820	0.23%
27	Hervey Bay	Queensland	52,288	0.22%
28	Mildura–Wentworth	Victoria/New South Wales	50,011	0.21%
29	Shepparton–Mooroopna	Victoria	49,371	0.21%
30	Gladstone–Tannum Sands	Queensland	49,248	0.21%
31	Port Macquarie	New South Wales	45,341	0.19%
32	Tamworth	New South Wales	42,255	0.18%
33	Traralgon–Morwell	Victoria	40,816	0.17%
34	Orange	New South Wales	40,075	0.17%
35	Geraldton	Western Australia	39,825	0.17%
36	Bowral–Mittagong	New South Wales	37,897	0.16%
37	Dubbo	New South Wales	36,941	0.16%
38	Busselton	Western Australia	36,285	0.15%
39	Bathurst	New South Wales	36,013	0.15%
40	Nowra–Bomaderry	New South Wales	35,920	0.15%
41	Warrnambool	Victoria	33,979	0.14%
42	Albany	Western Australia	33,970	0.14%
43	Warragul–Drouin	Victoria	33,386	0.14%
44	Kalgoorlie-Boulder	Western Australia	32,797	0.14%
45	Devonport	Tasmania	30,497	0.13%

Notes

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.

			Estimated resident population		Statistical Division/ District (if part of larger SD)	Ranking in state or territory, 2011
Rank		Urban Centre	2011 Census	2006 Census	Statistical Division/ District (if part of larger SD)	ACT	NSW	NT	Qld	SA	Tas	WA	Vic
	1	Sydney	3,908,642	3,641,422			1
	2	Melbourne	3,707,530	3,371,888									1
	3	Brisbane	1,874,427	1,676,389					1
	4	Perth	1,627,576	1,256,035								1
	5	Adelaide	1,103,979	1,040,719						1
	6	Gold Coast–Tweed Heads	533,660	454,436			2		2
	7	Canberra–Queanbeyan	391,474	356,120		1	3
	8	Newcastle	308,308	288,732	Hunter		4
	9	Central Coast	297,713	282,726	Sydney		5
	10	Wollongong	245,942	234,482	Illawarra		6
	11	Sunshine Coast	209,263	184,662					3
	12	Hobart	170,975	128,557							1
	13	Townsville	157,748	128,808					4
	14	Geelong	143,291	137,220									2
	15	Cairns	133,893	98,349					5
	16	Darwin	103,016	89,905				1
	17	Toowoomba	96,597	95,265					6
	18	Ballarat	85,935	78,221									3
	19	Bendigo	82,794	76,051									4
	20	Albury–Wodonga	77,232	73,497			7						5
	21	Mackay	74,219	66,874					7
	22	Launceston	74,085	71,395							2
	23	Mandurah	69,903	67,813	Perth (GCCSA only)							2
	24	Maitland	67,132	61,431	Newcastle		8
	25	Bunbury	64,385	54,482								3
	26	Rockhampton	61,724	60,827					8
	27	Bundaberg	49,750	46,961					9
	28	Hervey Bay	48,680	41,225					10
	29	Wagga Wagga	46,913	46,735			9
	30	Melton	45,624	35,490	Melbourne								6
	31	Coffs Harbour	45,580	26,353			10
	32	Shepparton–Mooroopna	42,741	38,773									7
	33	Port Macquarie	41,491	39,219			11
	34	Tamworth	36,131	33,475			12
	35	Orange	34,992	31,544			13
	36	Mildura–Buronga	33,432	30,823			14						8
	37	Sunbury	33,062	29,566	Melbourne								9
	38	Pakenham	32,911	18,808	Melbourne								10
	39	Dubbo	32,327	30,574			15
	40	Gladstone	32,073	28,808					11
	41	Geraldton	31,349	27,420								4
	42	Bathurst	31,294	28,992			16
	43	Kalgoorlie-Boulder	30,840	28,242								5
	44	Warrnambool	29,284	28,150									11
	45	Nowra–Bomaderry	27,988	27,478			17
	46	Lismore	27,474	27,069			18
	47	Albany	26,643	25,196								6
	48	Mount Gambier	25,199	23,494						2
	49	Traralgon	24,590	21,960									12
	50	Alice Springs	24,208	21,622				2

30 largest local government areas by population

Local government areas are the main units of local government in Australia. They may be termed cities, shires, councils or other names, and all function similarly. Brisbane, which covers multiple LGAs, is the only state capital city with a local government area covering a significant portion of its urban area. Other capital cities are serviced by LGAs which cover a much smaller proportion of their total urban areas. A New South Wales review of local government areas resulted in various amalgamations of local government authorities in the state, reflected below, based on amalgamation of 2015 Australian Bureau of Statistics population figures

			Estimated resident population		Statistical Division/ District	Ranking in state, 2015
Rank		Local government area	2011 census	2015	Statistical Division/ District	Qld	NSW	WA	Vic
	1	City of Brisbane	1,041,839	1,162,186	Brisbane	1
	2	City of Gold Coast	494,501	555,608	Gold Coast	2
	3	Moreton Bay Region	378,045	425,482	Brisbane	3
new	4	Canterbury-Bankstown Council	350,983	354,948	Sydney		1
	5	City of Blacktown	301,099	339,328	Sydney		2
new	6	Central Coast Council	331,007	333,119	Central Coast		3
	7	City of Logan	278,050	308,681	Brisbane	4
	8	City of Casey	252,382	292,211	Melbourne				1
	9	Sunshine Coast Region	306,909	287,539	Sunshine Coast	5
new	10	Northern Beaches Council	263,413	266,247	Sydney		4
new	11	City of Parramatta Council	215,925	230,167	Sydney		5
	12	City of Greater Geelong	210,875	229,420	Geelong				2
	13	City of Stirling	195,702	227,566	Perth			1
	14	Sutherland Shire	210,863	226,220	Sydney		6
new	15	Cumberland Council	219,147	219,312	Sydney		7
	16	City of Wyndham	161,575	209,847	Melbourne				3
	17	City of Wollongong	205,231	208,875	Illawarra		8
	18	City of Sydney	169,505	205,339	Sydney		9
	19	City of Liverpool	180,143	204,594	Sydney		10
	20	City of Fairfield	198,301	204,442	Sydney		11
	21	City of Lake Macquarie	189,006	204,166	Newcastle		12
	22	City of Brimbank	182,735	199,432	Melbourne				4
	23	City of Penrith	178,467	197,922	Sydney		13
	24	City of Whittlesea	154,880	195,397	Melbourne				5
	25	City of Hume	167,562	194,006	Melbourne				6
	26	City of Townsville	174,492	193,946	Northern	6
	27	City of Ipswich	166,904	193,015	Brisbane	7
	28	City of Wanneroo	152,077	188,785	Perth			2
	29	City of Monash	169,280	187,286	Melbourne				7
	29	City of Boroondara	159,184	174,787	Melbourne				8

Apart from the City of Brisbane, City of Sydney and City of Melbourne, the populations of the central local government areas in other capitals is relatively small. As at 2015, Melbourne had 128,980, Darwin 82,912, Hobart 50,714, Adelaide 23,169 and Perth 21,092. Generally speaking, there are many suburban local government areas in most Australian capitals that are significantly larger in population than the central business district local government area.hi:आस्ट्रेलिया के नगर lt:Australijos miestai sr:Списак градова у Аустралији