Melbourne tops Sydney as Australia's biggest city after Melton included in city's urban area

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Melbourne overtakes Sydney as Australia's biggest city
Due to boundaries shifting to include town of Melton

By Ben Talintyre For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 22:47 EDT, 16 April 2023 | Updated: 02:30 EDT, 17 April 2023

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Melbourne has overtaken Sydney as Australia's largest city after the Victorian capital's boundary was changed.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show Melbourne has almost 19,000 more people than Sydney, with a population of 4,875,400.

The ABS measures a city's significant urban area by including all touching suburbs with more than 10,000 people, with Sydney holding the top spot for more than 100 years.

The rise in Melbourne's population comes due to a 'technicality', after the city's limits were expanded to include the suburb of Melton, The Australian Bureau of Statistics says.

'Until the 2021 census definition, the Sydney significant area had a higher population than Melbourne,' explained Andrew Howe, of the ABS's Regional Population Unit.

'However, with the amalgamation of Melton into Melbourne in the latest significant urban area classification, Melbourne has more people than Sydney - and has had since 2018.'

Sydney's more than a century long reign as the country's largest city is over as Melbourne takes top spot on a technicality after city of Melton is included in Melbourne's significant urban area

Macquarie University demographer Professor Nick Parr says Sydney's growth is slowing as more people choose to live in other cities and towns.

'Sydney's growth has been slowed by its substantial net losses of people due to internal migration,' he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

'Far more people have moved out of Sydney going to other parts of Australia, especially to the rest of NSW, Queensland and Victoria, than have moved to Sydney from elsewhere in Australia.'

But when looking at the total size of the greater Sydney and Melbourne regions, Sydney remained the largest with an overall population of 5.26million in June 2021 compared to Melbourne's 4.98million.

The greater region metric represents populations who regularly socialise, shop or work within the city, but may live in small towns and rural areas surrounding it.

However in another blow to Sydney, the federal government predict Greater Melbourne will overtake Greater Sydney between 2031 and 2032.

As Melbourne continues to grow, the state of New South Wales is still expected to remain Australia's largest, with the population of NSW sitting at 8.23 million, compared to VIC's 6.72 million.