The 50 largest Australian cities and towns by population

A couple of years ago, I did a blog post about Australia’s top 33 cities by population. This was a very popular blog which was a ranking of the biggest cities in Australia and so I’ve updated it here (and expanded it to the top 50 largest Australian cities) with the latest population figures from the ABS as at 2013. For more up to date population and population forecasts for NSW, read our blog on the Top 20 fastest growing suburbs in NSW. Watch this space for other states.

So, without further ado, on to the list!

The 50 largest Australian cities and towns by population, 2013

This is based on the top 50 Significant Urban Areas in Australia  at June 2013 Estimated Resident Population, and 5 year growth 2008-2013.

Rank	Significant Urban Area	State	2013	5 year growth	5 year % growth
1	Sydney	NSW	4,373,433	326,568	8.1%
2	Melbourne	Vic	4,181,021	392,675	10.4%
3	Brisbane	Qld	2,143,121	215,082	11.2%
4	Perth	WA	1,901,582	269,825	16.5%
5	Adelaide	SA	1,263,888	71,195	6.0%
6	Gold Coast – Tweed Heads	Qld/NSW	605,134	60,773	11.2%
7	Newcastle – Maitland	NSW	425,895	24,459	6.1%
8	Canberra – Queanbeyan	ACT/NSW	418,856	34,934	9.1%
9	Central Coast	NSW	320,266	15,643	5.1%
10	Sunshine Coast	Qld	292,354	26,732	10.1%
11	Wollongong	NSW	286,581	14,292	5.2%
12	Hobart	Tas	206,560	8,278	4.2%
13	Geelong	Vic	181,853	11,117	6.5%
14	Townsville	Qld	176,035	19,689	12.6%
15	Cairns	Qld	145,003	14,806	11.4%
16	Darwin	NT	119,597	11,900	11.0%
17	Toowoomba	Qld	112,588	6,029	5.7%
18	Ballarat	Vic	96,940	9,047	10.3%
19	Bendigo	Vic	90,280	6,967	8.4%
20	Albury – Wodonga	NSW/Vic	86,274	4,734	5.8%
21	Launceston	Tas	86,188	2,139	2.5%
22	Mackay	Qld	83,924	9,234	12.4%
23	Rockhampton	Qld	79,298	6,208	8.5%
24	Bunbury	WA	72,464	10,779	17.5%
25	Bundaberg	Qld	70,359	3,513	5.3%
26	Coffs Harbour	NSW	67,519	3,301	5.1%
27	Wagga Wagga	NSW	54,679	1,788	3.4%
28	Melton	Vic	54,483	13,093	31.6%
29	Hervey Bay	Qld	51,168	4,632	10.0%
30	Mildura – Wentworth	Vic/NSW	49,441	1,845	3.9%
31	Shepparton – Mooroopna	Vic	48,637	3,333	7.4%
32	Gladstone – Tannum Sands	Qld	46,377	5,599	13.7%
33	Port Macquarie	NSW	44,180	2,684	6.5%
34	Tamworth	NSW	41,304	2,641	6.8%
35	Traralgon – Morwell	Vic	40,910	1,969	5.1%
36	Orange	NSW	39,226	3,367	9.4%
37	Geraldton	WA	38,931	3,859	11.0%
38	Bowral – Mittagong	NSW	36,994	1,855	5.3%
39	Ellenbrook	WA	36,207	12,778	54.5%
40	Dubbo	NSW	36,089	1,870	5.5%
41	Nowra – Bomaderry	NSW	34,885	2,061	6.3%
42	Bathurst	NSW	34,870	2,856	8.9%
43	Busselton	WA	34,241	5,921	20.9%
44	Warrnambool	Vic	33,625	1,615	5.0%
45	Kalgoorlie – Boulder	WA	33,484	2,796	9.1%
46	Albany	WA	33,113	2,373	7.7%
47	Warragul – Drouin	Vic	31,935	4,718	17.3%
48	Devonport	Tas	30,431	847	2.9%
49	Lismore	NSW	29,537	558	1.9%
50	Alice Springs	NT	28,720	1,254	4.6%

Please note that the geographic classification of urban centres has changed since we wrote our previous blog Australia’s top 33 cities by population. Consequently the tables are not directly comparable (see more detail about geography changes below).