Melbourne overtakes Sydney as Australia’s most populous city

After more than a century Sydney has lost its title due to a counting quirk

Sydney has long been Australia’s most populous city, but last week, Melbourne officially overtook it as the country’s biggest – 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.