Melbourne overtakes Sydney as Australia's biggest city

Melbourne has overtaken Sydney arsenic Australia's astir populous metropolis for the archetypal clip since the 19th Century golden rush, pursuing a bound change.

Sydney has proudly held the rubric for much than 100 years.

But with populations rapidly increasing connected Melbourne's fringe, the metropolis limits person been expanded to see the country of Melton.

The latest authorities figures, from June 2021, enactment Melbourne's colonisation astatine 4,875,400 - 18,700 much than Sydney.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) defines a city's "significant municipality area", by including each connecting suburbs with much than 10,000 people.

By that metric, Melbourne has really been much populous than Sydney since 2018.

"Until the 2021 census definition, the Sydney important country had a higher colonisation than Melbourne. However, with the amalgamation of Melton into Melbourne successful the latest important municipality country classification, Melbourne has much radical than Sydney - and has had since 2018, " the ABS's Andrew Howe told the Sydney Morning Herald paper - which described the redrawn bound arsenic "a technicality".

Proud Sydneysiders volition constituent to the ABS's decision that erstwhile looking astatine the greater Sydney and Melbourne regions, Sydney remained bigger successful June 2021.

Greater regions of a metropolis are determined by its "functional area", the ABS says, and see populations who regularly socialise, store oregon enactment wrong the city, but whitethorn unrecorded successful tiny towns and agrarian areas surrounding it.

However the national authorities predicts Greater Melbourne volition overtake Greater Sydney successful 2031-32.

It's not the archetypal clip Melbourne has held the rubric of Australia's biggest city.

As a effect of the golden unreserved successful the precocious 19th century, which saw migrants flock to the authorities of the Victoria, Melbourne grew rapidly and outnumbered Sydney until 1905.