Melbourne overtakes Sydney as Australia’s most populous city

Melbourne’s growth has been outpacing Sydney’s for much of the past decade. Photograph: Charlie Rogers/Getty Images

Sydney has long been Australia’s most populous city, but last week, Melbourne officially overtook it – thanks to a quirk in how the figures are counted.

Melbourne’s population was 4,875,400 at the country’s most recent census in 2021, while there were 18,700 fewer people in Sydney, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) which returns Melbourne to the mantle of Australia’s most populous city, a title it last held in 1905.