List of cities in Australia by population facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Australia has many cities and towns, and we can rank them by how many people live in them! This article shows different ways to count people in Australian cities, using information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

We'll look at a few types of areas:

Greater Capital City Statistical Areas (GCCSAs): These are the big areas around Australia's main capital cities.
Significant Urban Areas (SUAs): These are important towns and cities with at least 10,000 people.
Urban Centres: These are the actual built-up areas of cities and towns.
Local Government Areas (LGAs): These are the local councils that manage different parts of Australia.

Australia's Biggest Capital City Areas
Significant Urban Areas by Population
Understanding Urban Centres
Local Government Areas by Population
How City Areas Are Defined
See also

Australia's Biggest Capital City Areas

Each capital city in Australia has its own Greater Capital City Statistical Area (GCCSA). The Australian Bureau of Statistics uses these areas to show the full size of each capital city, including the city itself and its surrounding areas where people live and work. When you hear about the population of a capital city in Australia, it's usually this number! These areas are a bit like what other countries call "metropolitan areas."

Rank	Greater Capital City Statistical Area	State/territory	Estimated resident population		Growth from 2011 to 2022	Included SUAs
Rank	Greater Capital City Statistical Area	State/territory	June 2023	June 2011	Growth from 2011 to 2022	Included SUAs
1	Greater Sydney	New South Wales	5,450,496	4,608,949	&10000000000000018258978+18.26%	Sydney Central Coast
2	Greater Melbourne	Victoria	5,207,145	4,169,366	&10000000000000024890570+24.89%	Melbourne Bacchus Marsh Gisborne
3	Greater Brisbane	Queensland	2,706,966	2,147,436	&10000000000000026055724+26.06%	Brisbane
4	Greater Perth	Western Australia	2,309,338	1,833,567	&10000000000000025947838+25.95%	Perth
5	Greater Adelaide	South Australia	1,446,380	1,264,091	&10000000000000014420559+14.42%	Adelaide
6	Australian Capital Territory	Australian Capital Territory	466,566	367,985	&10000000000000026789407+26.79%	Canberra–Queanbeyan (ACT part only)
7	Greater Hobart	Tasmania	253,654	216,273	&10000000000000017284173+17.28%	Hobart
8	Greater Darwin	Northern Territory	150,736	129,106	&10000000000000016753675+16.75%	Darwin

Significant Urban Areas by Population

Significant Urban Areas (SUAs) are places that are important towns or cities, or groups of smaller towns, that have at least 10,000 people living in them. These areas might even include more than one "Urban Centre" (which we'll explain next).

Did you know that 70% of all Australians live in the top eight most populated cities? That's a lot of people in just a few places!

Perth

The table below ranks the SUAs. You'll see that the capital cities are listed here too, but their SUA populations are usually smaller than their GCCSA populations. The only exception is Canberra, whose SUA includes nearby Queanbeyan in New South Wales.

Rank	Significant Urban Area	State/territory	Estimated resident population		Growth from 2011 to 2023
Rank	Significant Urban Area	State/territory	June 2023	June 2011	Growth from 2011 to 2023
1	Melbourne	Victoria	5,103,528	4,087,822	&10000000000000024847119+24.85%
2	Sydney	New South Wales	5,041,275	4,240,340	&10000000000000018888461+18.89%
3	Brisbane	Queensland	2,622,585	2,076,608	&10000000000000026291770+26.29%
4	Perth	Western Australia	2,289,366	1,817,023	&10000000000000025995433+26.00%
5	Adelaide	South Australia	1,426,803	1,245,896	&10000000000000014520232+14.52%
6	Gold Coast–Tweed Heads	Queensland New South Wales	735,213	581,036	&10000000000000026534844+26.53%
7	Newcastle–Maitland	New South Wales	526,515	453,265	&10000000000000016160524+16.16%
8	Canberra–Queanbeyan	Australian Capital Territory New South Wales	503,402	405,032	&10000000000000024286969+24.29%
9	Sunshine Coast	Queensland	407,859	303,824	&10000000000000034241863+34.24%
10	Central Coast	New South Wales	348,435	314,941	&10000000000000010635007+10.64%
11	Wollongong	New South Wales	313,745	281,700	&10000000000000011375576+11.38%
12	Geelong	Victoria	302,046	227,957	&10000000000000032501305+32.50%
13	Hobart	Tasmania	232,450	198,534	&10000000000000017083220+17.08%
14	Townsville	Queensland	186,734	167,561	&10000000000000011442400+11.44%
15	Cairns	Queensland	160,933	139,212	&10000000000000015602821+15.60%
16	Toowoomba	Queensland	149,817	126,426	&10000000000000018501732+18.50%
17	Darwin	Northern Territory	137,002	116,995	&10000000000000017100730+17.10%
18	Ballarat	Victoria	116,390	93,459	&10000000000000024535892+24.54%
19	Bendigo	Victoria	104,883	87,340	&10000000000000020085871+20.09%
20	Albury-Wodonga	New South Wales Victoria	100,095	84,195	&10000000000000018884731+18.88%
21	Launceston	Tasmania	93,364	86,051	&10000000000000008498448+8.50%
22	Mackay	Queensland	88,162	79,683	&10000000000000010640914+10.64%
23	Rockhampton	Queensland	81,937	78,598	&10000000000000004248199+4.25%
24	Bunbury	Western Australia	81,367	67,860	&10000000000000019904214+19.90%
25	Bundaberg	Queensland	77,261	69,095	&10000000000000011818510+11.82%
26	Coffs Harbour	New South Wales	75,838	66,689	&10000000000000013718904+13.72%
27	Hervey Bay	Queensland	60,838	49,835	&10000000000000022078860+22.08%
28	Wagga Wagga	New South Wales	57,807	54,137	&10000000000000006779097+6.78%
29	Shepparton-Mooroopna	Victoria	54,494	47,571	&10000000000000014552983+14.55%
30	Mildura-Buronga	Victoria	54,427	48,505	&10000000000000012209050+12.21%
31	Port Macquarie	New South Wales	51,965	43,275	&10000000000000020080878+20.08%
32	Gladstone	Queensland	47,294	43,166	&10000000000000009563082+9.56%
33	Ballina	New South Wales	47,188	40,674	&10000000000000016015144+16.02%
34	Warragul–Drouin	Victoria	45,597	30,287	&10000000000000050549740+50.55%
35	Tamworth	New South Wales	45,496	40,085	&10000000000000013498815+13.50%
36	Busselton	Western Australia	43,853	31,475	&10000000000000039326449+39.33%
37	Traralgon–Morwell	Victoria	43,739	40,609	&10000000000000007707651+7.71%
38	Orange	New South Wales	42,642	37,785	&10000000000000012854307+12.85%
39	Bowral–Mittagong	New South Wales	41,982	36,266	&10000000000000015761319+15.76%
40	Dubbo	New South Wales	41,801	35,281	&10000000000000018480201+18.48%
41	Geraldton	Western Australia	41,086	36,884	&10000000000000011392473+11.39%
42	Nowra–Bomaderry	New South Wales	39,702	34,604	&10000000000000014732400+14.73%
43	Bathurst	New South Wales	38,339	33,754	&10000000000000013583575+13.58%
44	Albany	Western Australia	37,037	31,791	&10000000000000016501525+16.50%
45	Warrnambool	Victoria	36,238	33,020	&10000000000000009745608+9.75%
46	Devonport	Tasmania	32,848	30,425	&10000000000000007963845+7.96%
47	Mount Gambier	South Australia	30,583	28,279	&10000000000000008147388+8.15%
48	Kalgoorlie–Boulder	Western Australia	30,504	31,933	Template:Number table sorting/negative−4.47%
49	Victor Harbor–Goolwa	South Australia	29,798	24,422	&10000000000000022012939+22.01%
50	Morisset–Cooranbong	New South Wales	29,421	22,644	&10000000000000029928457+29.93%
51	Alice Springs	Northern Territory	29,213	28,489	&10000000000000002541331+2.54%
52	Nelson Bay	New South Wales	28,674	26,116	&10000000000000009794761+9.79%
53	Burnie–Somerset	Tasmania	28,663	28,019	&10000000000000002298440+2.30%
54	Maryborough	Queensland	28,346	26,893	&10000000000000005402892+5.40%
55	Lismore	New South Wales	28,199	29,294	Template:Number table sorting/negative−3.74%
56	Taree	New South Wales	26,740	26,307	&10000000000000001645949+1.65%
57	Bacchus Marsh	Victoria	26,055	17,488	&10000000000000048987877+48.99%
58	Goulburn	New South Wales	25,017	22,202	&10000000000000012679037+12.68%
59	Armidale	New South Wales	24,373	23,471	&10000000000000003843040+3.84%
60	Gympie	Queensland	23,497	19,971	&10000000000000017655600+17.66%
61	Gisborne	Victoria	23,056	18,570	&10000000000000024157242+24.16%
62	Echuca–Moama	Victoria New South Wales	22,979	19,659	&10000000000000016887939+16.89%
63	Moe–Newborough	Victoria	22,170	21,432	&10000000000000003443449+3.44%
64	Whyalla	South Australia	21,807	22,471	Template:Number table sorting/negative−2.95%
65	Yeppoon	Queensland	21,688	16,815	&10000000000000028980077+28.98%
66	Forster–Tuncurry	New South Wales	21,074	20,273	&10000000000000003951067+3.95%
67	Griffith	New South Wales	20,538	18,683	&10000000000000009928812+9.93%
68	St Georges Basin–Sanctuary Point	New South Wales	20,200	16,967	&10000000000000019054635+19.05%
69	Wangaratta	Victoria	19,969	17,980	&10000000000000011062291+11.06%
70	Grafton	New South Wales	19,607	19,051	&10000000000000002918481+2.92%
71	Murray Bridge	South Australia	19,371	17,071	&10000000000000013473141+13.47%
72	Camden Haven	New South Wales	19,000	16,267	&10000000000000016800885+16.80%
73	Karratha	Western Australia	18,631	17,007	&10000000000000009549009+9.55%
74	Mount Isa	Queensland	18,518	21,417	Template:Number table sorting/negative−13.54%
75	Batemans Bay	New South Wales	17,692	16,352	&10000000000000008194716+8.19%
76	Broken Hill	New South Wales	17,624	19,151	Template:Number table sorting/negative−7.97%
77	Singleton	New South Wales	17,503	16,730	&10000000000000004620442+4.62%
78	Ulladulla	New South Wales	17,330	14,758	&10000000000000017427835+17.43%
79	Port Lincoln	South Australia	16,991	15,621	&10000000000000008770245+8.77%
80	Horsham	Victoria	16,876	16,099	&10000000000000004826386+4.83%
81	Port Hedland	Western Australia	16,834	14,372	&10000000000000017130531+17.13%
82	Kempsey	New South Wales	16,143	14,796	&10000000000000009103811+9.10%
83	Warwick	Queensland	16,064	14,950	&10000000000000007451505+7.45%
84	Medowie	New South Wales	16,058	12,686	&10000000000000026580482+26.58%
85	Broome	Western Australia	16,008	13,314	&10000000000000020234339+20.23%
86	Bairnsdale	Victoria	15,819	13,458	&10000000000000017543468+17.54%
87	Airlie Beach-Cannonvale	Queensland	15,723	10,982	&10000000000000043170642+43.17%
88	Ulverstone	Tasmania	15,408	14,739	&10000000000000004538978+4.54%
89	Sale	Victoria	15,363	14,441	&10000000000000006384599+6.38%
90	Emerald	Queensland	14,914	13,632	&10000000000000009404342+9.40%
91	Port Pirie	South Australia	14,169	14,281	Template:Number table sorting/negative−0.78%
92	Port Augusta	South Australia	14,082	14,084	Template:Number table sorting/negative−0.01%
93	Colac	Victoria	12,640	11,981	&10000000000000005500375+5.50%
94	Muswellbrook	New South Wales	12,590	12,222	&10000000000000003010963+3.01%
95	Esperance	Western Australia	12,565	11,777	&10000000000000006691007+6.69%
96	Mudgee	New South Wales	12,563	10,832	&10000000000000015980428+15.98%
97	Lithgow	New South Wales	12,253	12,686	Template:Number table sorting/negative−3.41%
98	Castlemaine	Victoria	11,495	9,920	&10000000000000015877016+15.88%
99	Portland	Victoria	11,181	10,894	&10000000000000002634477+2.63%
100	Byron Bay	New South Wales	11,053	9,237	&10000000000000019660062+19.66%
101	Swan Hill	Victoria	10,948	10,610	&10000000000000003185673+3.19%
102	Kingaroy	Queensland	10,898	10,074	&10000000000000008179471+8.18%

Understanding Urban Centres

The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines an "Urban Centre" as a group of 1,000 or more people living close together. When we talk about people living in urban centres, it means they live in a city or town. These numbers show the population of the actual built-up areas of each city. The populations for Urban Centres are only updated after each census, so they might not be as current as the other population figures.

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

Local Government Areas by Population

In Australia, Local Government Areas (LGAs) are the groups that manage local services. They can be called cities, councils, regions, shires, or towns. About 90% of Australia is covered by these local governments. Some parts of South Australia and New South Wales don't have a local government, and neither does the Australian Capital Territory.

The City of Brisbane is special because its local government area covers a large part of the actual city. For other capital cities, the main local government area is much smaller than the whole city. For example, in June 2020, the City of Darwin had about 82,030 people, City of Hobart had 55,250, City of Perth had 30,971, and City of Adelaide had 26,177. Many suburban local government areas in capital cities actually have more people than the central city's LGA!

Rank (2021)		Local government area	Estimated resident population		Ranking in state, 2021
Rank (2021)		Local government area	2021	2019	Qld	NSW	WA	Vic	SA
	1	City of Brisbane	1,272,461	1,253,647	1
	2	City of Gold Coast	643,461	620,437	2
	3	City of Moreton Bay	486,645	469,442	3
	4	City of Blacktown	387,104	374,372		1
	5	City of Canterbury-Bankstown	378,425	377,836		2
	6	City of Casey	368,861	353,962				1
	7	City of Logan	348,020	334,353	4
	8	Central Coast Council	347,158	343,922		3
	9	Sunshine Coast Region	343,590	328,390	5
	10	City of Wyndham	289,571	270,607				2
	11	Northern Beaches Council	272,184	273,409		4
	12	City of Greater Geelong	269,508	258,938				3
	13	City of Parramatta	258,799	257,094		5
	14	City of Hume	243,738	233,545				4
	15	City of Sydney	242,237	245,942		6
	16	Cumberland Council	239,834	241,453		7
	17	City of Whittlesea	237,932	220,297				5
	18	City of Ipswich	236,708	222,311	6
	19	City of Liverpool	234,917	227,545		8
	20	Sutherland Shire	234,275	230,579		9
	21	City of Stirling	223,260	221,238			1
	22	City of Wollongong	220,659	218,076		10
	23	City of Penrith	219,173	212,944		11
	24	City of Wanneroo	215,878	208,360			2
	25	City of Lake Macquarie	210,031	205,875		12
	26	City of Fairfield	207,922	211,654		13
	27	City of Brimbank	201,680	209,568				6
	28	Inner West Council	199,759	200,720		14
	29	City of Townsville	197,992	195,022	7
	30	City of Monash	197,980	202,896				7
	31	The Hills Shire	188,557	177,927		15
	32	City of Merri-bek	184,707	185,811				8
	33	Bayside Council	182,369	178,351		16
	34	City of Melton	179,107	164,936				9
	35	City of Boroondara	176,632	183,197				10
	36	City of Whitehorse	175,970	178,779				11
	37	City of Onkaparinga	175,711	172,945					1
	38	City of Campbelltown	175,687	170,912		17
	39	Toowoomba Region	171,135	168,992	8
	40	City of Melbourne	169,860	178,994				12
	41	City of Newcastle	168,880	165,541		18
	42	Shire of Mornington Peninsula	168,865	167,619				13
	43	Cairns Region	168,853	166,849	9
	44	City of Kingston	164,680	165,804				14
	45	City of Greater Dandenong	163,266	168,261				15
	46	City of Knox	162,769	164,553				16
	47	City of Darebin	162,501	164,224				17
	48	Redland City	161,463	158,801	10
	49	City of Joondalup	160,579	159,898			3
	50	Georges River Council	159,266	159,431		19

How City Areas Are Defined

Sydney statistical areas

The map shows how the Australian Bureau of Statistics defines different areas around Sydney.

The Greater Capital City Statistical Area (GCCSA) for Sydney is shown by the thick grey line. These are the eight largest areas that include each state or territory capital city. They are made up of one or more whole "labour market areas" (called SA4 units). The "Rest of NSW" area includes all other parts of New South Wales, as each state only has one GCCSA.

The Significant Urban Areas (SUAs) are shown by solid orange lines with red text. These areas represent important towns and cities, or groups of smaller towns, that have populations of 10,000 people or more. They are made from smaller areas called SA2 units, which are collections of suburbs and localities.

The Urban Centres/Localities are shown by dashed red lines with pink fill. These are the actual built-up parts of cities, towns, and smaller settlements. They are made from the smallest statistical areas, called SA1 units.

The map also shows 31 colored areas. These are the 31 local government areas that are generally considered to be part of Sydney, even if it's not an official definition.