Melbourne is set to overtake Sydney as Australia’s biggest city by 2026 – with an extra 327 people moving to the city every day
- Melbourne receives 327 people a day and is due to over take Sydney by 2026
- The most densely populated area in Australia the inner city Melbourne
- According to the ABS, net overseas migration is the biggest factor in net growth
Melbourne is set to overtake Sydney as Australia’s biggest city within the next seven years, with the city growing by 327 people every day.
Melbourne saw the largest population increase in the country with 119,421 people, or 2.5 per cent in 2018, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Most of Melbourne’s population growth (65 per cent) was due to net overseas migration, natural increases accounted for 30 per cent and net internal migration five per cent.
According to the ABS Greater Sydney had seven of the ten most densely-populated areas
This makes Melbourne the fastest growing city ahead of the Australian Capital Territory (2.2%) and Brisbane (2.1%) according to the ABS.
The ABS also showed that the estimated resident population in the greater area of Melbourne is 4,963,349, falling second to Sydney who holds the highest number in Australia with 5,230,330 people in 2018.
The city of Sydney ranked fourth in its overall population growth with 1.8 per cent between 2017 and 2018, bringing its total population to more than 5.2 million people.
According to the ABS, net overseas migration added 71,000 people to the population in Sydney in 2017-2018.
However, Sydney recorded a net internal migration loss as 27,300 more people left Sydney to move to other parts of the country than arrived from around Australia.
The rest of the growth was made up by natural increases.
In New South Wales, both the largest and fastest growth area was recorded in Sydney’s northwest.
This is the smallest increase recorded since 2014- 2015.
Melbourne beat Sydney with the biggest population increase in the country by 2.5 per cent
This leaves the inner city of Melbourne is the most densely populated area in the country, with 20,700 people per square kilometre.
Even though Melbourne is the fastest growing city Sydney still holds seven of the ten most densely-populated areas in Australia in June 2018 – with a total population of more than 5.2 million.
Potts Point and Woolloomooloo in inner Sydney came second in Australia with a density of 16,610 people per sq km and the Pyrmont Ultimo area is third with 16,526 per sq km.