What is the population of Australia?
The population of Australia as of June 2020 is 25,687,041 people. It may be the sixth largest country in the world, but Australia has a population lower than North Korea, Cote d’Ivoire or Cameroon.
Australia may be a huge country, but vast swathes of it are essentially empty. The population of Australia isn’t nearly as high as many may imagine it to be. Australia is a large, and wealthy country, that punches above its weight on most measures. But much of that land is uninhabitable desert or vast outback sheep and cattle stations.
Population of Australia: Concentration in big cities
Most of Australia’s population is crammed onto the coastal strip, with the vast majority living in just five cities. Sydney is usually regarded Australia’s biggest city, but Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane all have populations of more than one million. Most of the big cities have significantly more.
Such is the concentration of people in these big urban hubs that many places Australia calls cities have pathetically tiny populations. In the UK, the likes of Albany, Warrnambool, Alice Springs and Whyalla would be small to medium-sized towns. In Australia, they have city status. And that’s before you get to truly tiny regional hub towns like Exmouth, Kimba and Katherine.
Current population of Australia
The Australian Bureau of Statistics releases updates on the population of Australia four times a year. As of 30 June 2020, the population of Australia was 25,687,041 people. That includes an annual growth of 321,300 people – or 1.3%.
For international comparison points, this makes Australia the 55th most populous country in the World according to the United Nations list. This is despite Australia being the sixth largest country by area. It has slightly fewer people than North Korea, Cote d’Ivoire or Cameroon, and slightly more than Taiwan, Niger or Sri Lanka.
If Australia was a state of the United States of America, it would be the third most populous. The population of Australia is smaller than that of California or Texas, but larger than that of Florida or New York.
Populations of Australian towns and cities
New South Wales: Armidale, Ballina, Bathurst, Coffs Harbour, Dubbo, Goulburn, Port Macquarie, Ulladulla, Tamworth, Wagga Wagga.
Northern Territory: Alice Springs.
Queensland: Cairns, Hervey Bay, Rockhampton, Toowoomba, Townsville.
South Australia: Port Augusta, Port Pirie.
Tasmania: Devonport, Launceston.