Australian capital cities by population
Compare the population of Australia’s eight greater capital city areas.
These are Greater Capital City Statistical Areas, not council boundaries. Population measures size; it is not a liveability score or a count of people in a city centre.
The comparison, in colour.
Bar height shows the magnitude of estimated resident population; exact values are listed below.
Every position. Every number.
| Rank | Capital city | Estimated resident population ↓ |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Sydney | 5,638,830 |
| 02 | Melbourne | 5,435,590 |
| 03 | Brisbane | 2,833,524 |
| 04 | Perth | 2,452,765 |
| 05 | Adelaide | 1,491,015 |
| 06 | Canberra | 484,630 |
| 07 | Hobart | 255,250 |
| 08 | Darwin | 159,284 |
Read the evidence.
Sort the eight ABS capital-city population estimates from highest to lowest. Exclude the combined capital-city total. ABS revises estimates, so later source editions may revise historical figures.
Australian Bureau of Statistics ↗ · CC BY 4.0. Presented by RankMondo with source attribution; no provider endorsement.
Source publication: 2026-03-31. Snapshot first observed 2026-11-07T14:09:41+00:00. Source-check schedule: quarterly; publisher cadence: Annual. Checking again does not change the observation period.